Singing Clubs & Sneaky Love
by theausllydoctor
Summary: Lester Dawson and Scott Moon, who work at rivaling high schools Marino and Coolidge, have always hated each other. But little do they know that Scott's nephew Austin, a student at Coolidge, has a crush on Lester's daughter Ally, a student at Marino.
1. Chapter 1

**ALLY:**

I was Ally Dawson. Ever since I was five years old and in kindergarten, I had had a dream of being a successful singer-songwriter. I couldn't decide whether I wanted to sing at Carnegie Hall, sing in Los Angeles, sing on Broadway or stay in here in my hometown Miami, where I was born and raised, with my friends and all, well, some of, my family. Like I mentioned before, my dream of music started in kindergarten.

We were having the annual spring pageant. That year, the concept was insects. I wrote a butterfly song, and my worst enemy, Tilly Thompson, wrote a ladybug song. I'll admit, Tilly's ladybug song was sort of cute, but most of the lyrics were irrelevant to ladybugs, because she mentioned that they ate pizza and rode bicycles. In what world would that even make the slightest bit of sense?

I hadn't done anything to hurt her, but that didn't matter. She clearly never forgave me because, not to lack modesty, but she was obviously jealous of me. Tilly and I went to the same elementary school and middle school and had quite a few classes together, and even though we didn't even go to school together, she still tried to make my life hell. I didn't know a lot of people who liked her- she was mean, obnoxious, egotistical, shallow, judgemental, short-tempered, stuck-up and self-centered. The only good thing about her was as long as you didn't provoke her, she'd leave you alone.

She would call me every name in the book- slut, skank, ho, bitch and whore to even the ones I preferred not to repeat due to them being off the charts in my standards of offensive. I didn't like that she couldn't just take five minutes of her life to be nice to someone, but I wasn't too upset by it because I was so used to it. As for school, Marino had the way overused, clichéd high school stereotypes. You know, the classics- geeks, nerds, jocks, goths, skaters, populars, gay kids, emos, rebels, divas, sluts and religious fanatics (just a nicer term for "jesus freak" or other slang used to describe people who were obsessed with their religious upbringing). Admittedly, there were some normals. Only four of them.

The normals were me, and my three best friends- Trish De La Rosa, and our other best friends, Piper Lainfield and her twin sister, Carrie. I had known Trish since I was five years old. She wasn't exactly the most responsible person I had ever met (she got fired from jobs continuously and she was a C and D student), she was a little snarky and as tough as nails and it was never a good idea to piss her off because she could get kind of aggressive when you did, she was a bit on the ratchet side and she uttered curse words like Gordon Ramsay in a Seth Rogen comedy, but the good parts of her were that she was optimistic, confident, persevering, and she did have a kinder, more heartwarming and gentle side to the people that mattered most to her, and thank Jesus Christ that Carrie, Piper and I were a few examples of those people. We first became best friends when at lunch-recess, she told me that she really liked my butterfly song and told me she thought I was a good singer. From that point on, we were besties.

We met Piper and Carrie in seventh grade. They had transferred to our middle school, Elwood Middle School, from a very prestigious catholic kindergarten to eighth grade school called Pennington Hall, or as they called it "The Jesus freak school from hell". They hated it. Much of the girls who went there were snobby, mean and classist, and they had only some friends, there were uniforms at that school, and they had way too many strict rules. Carrie was very sweet, friendly, childlike, bubbly, energetic, adorable, a little absent-minded and not exactly the sharpest knife in the drawer, but like I said, she was the sweetest and most adorable thing I had ever met.

Piper was just like her sister, only smarter, firmer and more adult-like. The four of us did everything together- trips to the mall, the movies, slumber parties, concerts, spa days, movie nights, birthdays, parties, eating out- you name it. They all even helped me face my stage fright at the school talent show in freshman year- we sang a mashup of Katy Perry songs. I developed stage fright in seventh grade when I was selected to sing the national anthem at the eighth graders' graduation and I terribly botched the lyrics. It was my most embarrassing moment ever.

But it had been five years since that happened, and I was a much more confident person then I was back then. Anyway, my bitches (we all called each other bitch) and I were all in the school glee club all four years. My dad, besides owning a kickass music store in the mall called Sonic Boom, was the sponsor of the Marino High glee club. When I was a baby, he and my mother Penny opened it up together. My parents sadly split up when I was nine years old, and I spent every other three weeks at my mom's house.

They fought a lot when they were married, and got along better in separate houses. Even if they did split up, they were good friends and still loved and supported me unconditionally. So right now, I was eating dinner with my dad at The Cheesecake Factory. We had ordered a cheese pizza with two caesar salads and he had ordered a beer and I had ordered a strawberry fruit smoothie.

I grabbed a slice of pizza and cut it with my knife and fork and ate it off the fork. He sipped his beer and asked,

"Hey, Ally? What kind of songs do you think we should sing for glee club this year?"

I finished chewing my bite of pizza and said,

"Well, Dad, you know how we do a lot of classic songs by say Madonna and Bruce Springsteen?"

My dad looked kind of upset.

"Hey, don't you talk shit about The Boss and The Material Girl!"

I said,

"I'm not. I have nothing against them. I love them."

My dad's upset face faded into a smile.

"Oh, sweetie, don't worry about it. I'm just joking."

I said,

"I thought we could do some songs that are a little more current."

He said,

"That's a good idea, honey. What were you thinking?"

I said,

"How about Wrecking Ball by Miley Cyrus?"

"That's good. But please don't strip on top of wrecking balls."

"Dad! We're not going to do something that inappropriate!"

He laughed.

"I know. I was joking."

He took out his iPhone to write, or in this case, text my song ideas. We agreed on Miley Cyrus's Wrecking Ball, Pharrell's Happy, Sara Bareilles's Love Song, Christina Perri's A Thousand Years, Ariana Grande's The Way, Flo Rida's I cry, Bruno Mars's Just the way you are and I could go on, but I don't want to bore you to tears. After we had finished our dinner, we were deciding what we wanted for dessert. Before my dad could ask me what I wanted for dessert, we were interrupted by a man who looked a lot like Alan Harper on _Two and a half men._ He was wearing a red plaid button down shirt, khaki slacks and black loafers.

He tapped my dad on the shoulder. He seemed polite enough, because he said,

"Excuse me, is this seat-?"

He then realized that it was my dad and he turned from polite to ill-mannered in exactly three seconds.

"Lester Dawson!"

"Scott Moon!"

"How long has it been?"

"More than long enough. Life has been great without you."

Scott laughed condescendingly.

"What are you doing nowadays, working as a male prostitute outside of a bar for gay people? Oh hey look at me, I'm Lester Dawson! I want to be your baby daddy!"

My dad seemed so angry. He smacked the table.

"Scott, I'll have you know that I have two very successful careers."

"Successful? We kick your ass everytime at the glee club competition. You call _that_ successful?"

"I also own a cool music store! And our school will kick your school's ass, you condescending son of a bitch!"

"Not really. We win every year."

Scott walked off. He was kind of a jerk.

I asked,

"Dad, who was that guy?"

My dad said,

"My worst enemy since my freshman year of high school. His parents were billionares. He's the snobbiest, most obnoxious son of a bitch I've ever met."

"Well, it was very mean-spirited of him to make fun of you like that. And to be honest, I really don't care if we win. I just care about fun."

My dad said,

"I like your spirit, Ally."

He then ordered a chocolate tuxedo cream cheesecake that we split. That was my favorite flavor of cheesecake.

I said,

"Although,"

I finished chewing my piece of cake and wiped my mouth with my napkin.

"Scott should understand that losing is a part of life, just like winning, and it's very immature that he's like in, what his forties?, and he shows off when he wins."

"I agree with you, but I also want to kick that douche bag's ass!"


	2. Chapter 2

**ALLY:**

It was sixth period glee club. My favorite class. I took a spot on the staired platform between Trish and Piper. Trish belted out,

"We clawed, we chained, our hearts in vain, we jumped, never asking why,"

I then sang,

"We kissed, I fell, under your spell, a love, no one could deny."

The rest of the class then joined in with us. Trish was an amazing singer.

Trish snickered.

"I freakin' love the song, but she should really make a more conservative video. Porn gives me nightmares- whether it's of an ass, vagina or boobs."

Piper took a sip of her vitamin water and put it down. She tied her long, blonde hair into a high ponytail.

"I thought you said nothing scared you anymore after you saw your drunk grandma twerking in a bikini."

I had met Trish's maternal and paternal grandparents. The one who I'm talking about is her maternal grandma (whom she called abuelita, but I called her Ms. Garcia) and she was a very nice lady, but boy was she a drunk. I remember when I met her, I had slept over at the De La Rosa's house and she had at least six glasses of wine and a margarita. And when she was drunk, she would laugh like Patrick Starr from _Spongebob Squarepants_ and get extremely delirious. She was literally a older, mexican woman, real life version of Barney Gumble on _The_ _Simpsons._

"After watching a Disney Channel alum act like a skank for attention, apparently I was wrong."

I said,

"Seems like that's what happens with all the disney stars of our childhood."

Piper took another sip of her yellow vitamin water and said,

"That's not entirely true, Ally. Hilary Duff from _Lizzie McGuire_ and Selena Gomez from _Wizards of Waverly Place_ seem like the only ones who are alright."

My dad walked in and hit the triangle he brought for attention.

"Hello, my little Natalie Coles."

Joey Bunch, just about the weirdest student at Marino because he drew penises and vaginas on almost anything- including homework assignments and his drawings of genitalia for fun. In a very disturbing and almost nightmare-inducing way, it was exactly like the scene in _Superbad_ where Seth revealed his obsession with drawing penises, and how he stored them in a _Ghostbusters_ lunchbox, except Joey stored them in a tin lunchbox with the _Peanuts_ kids on it, and he actually ate condoms. Carrie said she saw him eat a broken condom from the trash can outside of the boys' locker room. Just the thought of that always made me want to throw up. Everyone called him "penis freak" because of it.

I assumed the couple that had sex in the locker room was Vanessa Hernandez and DeLeon Brooks. Everytime I saw them together, they were either snuggling very close or passionately making out. They were a really cute interracial couple (DeLeon was african-american and Vanessa was latina), and plus Vanessa was three months pregnant already, so not a bad guess, right?

Anyway, Joey said,

"Uh, Mr. Dawson? Some of us are boys here."

Lance Green hooted,

"No one asked for your opinion, penis freak!"

My dad said,

"Lance, no labels! And Joey, you don't have to a girl to be a Natalie Cole. She's a great singer and I had a big crush on her in middle school."

Joey's friend Danny Moore piped in.

"Is she a pedo if you had a crush on her?"

"Do you even know what a pedo is?"

"Duh."

"Good. Anyway-"

He blew the pitch pipe and he told us to sing.

I sang,

"I know there's pain, Why do you lock yourself in these chains?"

Carrie sang,

"No one can change your life except for you. Don't ever let anyone step all over you."

She had the voice of a songbird auditioning on _The X Factor_ or _American Idol_. After Hold On, we sang Happy, Let It Go, Live It Up, Brave, Hot And Cold and Unconditionally.

After Carrie finished off Unconditionally, my dad clapped.

"You all have so much talent. We're going to have a practice competition with Coolidge tomorrow."

B.B. Michaels, who was the darkest, punkest person I ever met because she hated everything and almost everyone, groaned.

"Fuck Coolidge. Everyone who goes there is either a whore or a stupid douchebag."

My dad said,

"B.B, Language!"

She groaned,

"Dawson, I'm just saying that because many girls there are slutty ass bitches and my ex-boyfriend who goes there only used me for sex."

"B.B, if you use another word like that in my class again, I'm going to send you to detention. Is that understood?"

"Whatever."

"Good enough."

B.B., as cynical and sometimes disrespectful as she was, I felt sorry for her. She had depression, cut herself, and abused antidepressants. I tried to get her to open up to me, but she kept pushing me away. The next day, the glee clubs of Marino High and Coolidge High met at the Coolidge gym. As much as I wanted Marino to win for once, I thought Coolidge had some punch-in-the-face potential, too.

After the practice, I wasn't watching where I was going and I ran into someone, and I heard the clank of a dropping object. It was a black iPhone five s, covered by a green camouflage case. I started to say,

"Sorry, I didn't mean to make you drop that. Let me pick it up for you."

I bent down to pick it up. I saw another hand on it. I looked up and I saw a really cute boy. He had a short, messy blonde haircut that looked like an edgy rockstar version of the Justin Bieber combover and it perfectly framed his adorable baby face and he had the biggest brown eyes and we both stood up simultaneously. He was wearing a black T-shirt with Stewie from _Family Guy_ and it said, _I'd love to stay and chat but you're a total idiot_ , a pair of dark wash ripped skinny jeans and red swag high tops. He stared into my eyes and I stared into his.

I decided to let him pick it up instead. He was so cute that I couldn't stop looking at him.

"I'm sorry, I didn't see you. I was texting my friend."

"No, no, it was my fault."

"So, you want to be a singer someday too, huh?"

"Yeah. It's my dream. It always has been, ever since I was in kindergarten."

He chuckled and smiled. His smile was so beautiful. And his teeth were porcelain. He was beautiful. And his muscular arms looked so gorgeous.


	3. Chapter 3

**AUSTIN:**

This girl standing in front of me was so nice and she was really pretty. She was wearing a medium wash denim vest, a coral maxi dress, a gold necklace with coral studs, coral wedges, gold bangles and her shoulder-long, medium-brown hair was in the most perfect beachy waves, she was wearing just the right amount of makeup, and she had a baby face with the pinkest cheeks I had ever seen, and the most adorable cheekbones I had ever seen.

"Here you go."

She smiled,

"Thank you."

"I'm sorry I knocked it off your shoulders."

"It's totally fine. Don't worry about it."

I stared into her brown eyes. They were so beautiful. I decided to break the ice a little bit. I asked her,

"Where do you go to school?"

"Marino. And obviously, you go here."

She smiled and did a teeth laugh. They were as white as pearls and she had just about the most beautiful smile I had ever seen, and her laugh was adorable. She probably went to a really good dentist.

"You're pretty. Pink is your color. It really highlights your rosy little cheeks."

"Awwww, thank you! You're cute, too."

I laughed.

"Thanks."

Too bad I had a girlfriend- Tilly Thompson. But I didn't know how much longer I wanted to be with her. She was mean, judgemental, hot-tempered, cynical and shallow (she got mad when I hung out with other girls or with my friend Dez Wade. Dez was gay, and my girlfriend Tilly was homophobic). Plus, she made me give her all my hours, got mad at me when I missed her messages or calls and didn't return them (though that only sometimes happened) and only let me tell her what she wanted to hear.

"I'm Austin Moon."

"I'm Ally Dawson."

Dez walked over.

"Hey, kids! What are we talking about?"

I laughed,

"Ally, this is my best friend Dez. Dez, this is Ally. We just met."

Him and Ally shook hands. Dez smiled at her.

"Awwww, aren't you just the cutest little straight girl?"

He booped her nose.

Ally looked a little confused.

"Straight girl?"

Dez smiled.

"Oh, Austin didn't tell you? I'm gay and I'm proud of it!"

I put my hands on Dez's arms, sort of signaling him that he might not want to draw too much attention to himself.

"Yes, yes, Dez is openly gay and proud of his homosexuality."

Ally was the most adorable person I'd ever seen and apparently Dez thought she was adorable too, despite his sexuality. She blushed and laughed.

"Awwww, Dez. You're so sweet. And the most confident gay person I've met."

He put his hand on his heart and smiled, while looking at me with tears in his eyes.

"Thank you, sugar!"

I heard a man call,

"Sweetie, time to go!"

Ally said,

"I have to go. It was great to meet both of you."

She walked off. Dez said to me,

"Hmmmm, you like that girl, don't you?"

"We just met. But she seems nice."

"But Austin, you have a girlfriend."

"Yeah, who's a crotchety, mean old bitch. Especially when she's on her baby."

"You and Tilly had unprotected sex?"

I said,

"No. Every time we've had sex, we've always used condoms. I meant when she's on her period."

Dez said,

"Oh, yeah. Can't argue with you on that."

I could see the custodian cleaning the windows and another one was sweeping the floor. I could smell the chemicals and the dust flew near me. I didn't react well at all to cleaning chemicals and I reacted even worse to any kind of allergens. My lungs suddenly felt really clogged and I fell into a fit of coughing, hyperventilating and wheezing and I could barely stand up. Great, I was going into an asthma attack.

My mom and dad told me I was diagnosed with asthma when I was fourteen months old, and I assumed that it was because I was born a month and a half premature. As a result of my asthma, my lungs and respiratory system were very sensitive, and I was severely allergic to tylenol, pollen, dust, penicillin, shellfish, kiwis and soy. Sometimes I tired out when exercising, and at times, I had fits of barky coughing and I struggled to breathe, my chest would feel tight and it would hurt, once in a while I would have spells of dizziness and a few times I had fainted. My asthma would act up if I exercised too hard, if I smelled chemical fumes or smoke, in the cold air, strong odors or even if I got stressed out, and don't even get me started when I was sick with coughs and colds. Son of a bitch asthma was a total pain in the ass!

My asthma attacks were a lot more common when I was a kid, because I was weaker and barely even starting to mature, and I got sick A LOT. It took a lot of doctor's and hospital visits, over-the-counter medications (the fruity ones shaped like gummy bears and dinosaurs were my personal favorites), ibuprofen (a particular medicine I didn't react to) and, in a way, puberty, to improve my asthma. Even though we couldn't cure it, I was still a lot healthier and stronger than I was during childhood and I hadn't had a severe asthma attack since I was nine, even if I did have more mild episodes of asthma every now and then.

I could barely talk, but I managed to wheeze out,

"Dez, can you get my inhaler?"

"Of course buddy. Where is it?"

"In my locker, in my backpack, left cup pocket."

"Alright."

I gave Dez my locker combination and he gave me his in case of certain emergencies. What would I ever do without a lovable asshat like him? Here I was, nearly dying of an asthma attack, and he was getting my inhaler. Misty Keilen pulled a bottle of Dasani from her backpack and said to me,

"Here. Drink this. It should help."

I wheezed out,

"Thank you."

I drank the water really fast. I had known Misty since the fourth grade when Kevin Harvard, who used to bully me continually in elementary school and middle school, stole my brownie and stomped on it. She gave me hers because she didn't like brownies or Kevin Harvard. I had a crush on her throughout fourth grade and after eighth grade (She was likable, pretty, and she rocked red hair. I didn't see her again until sophomore year when she transferred to Coolidge from Ridgelane).

 **DEZ:**

Poor Austin. He'd had to deal with asthma pretty much his whole life. I ran to his locker and open it. I grabbed his inhaler and his green Klean Kanteen water bottle from his backpack and ran off with them. But I stopped when I couldn't believe my eyes- Austin's girlfriend Tilly Thompson was locking lips in the boy's bathroom with Trent Jackson, and I saw him take his shirt and pants off, and Tilly stripped everything but her bra and panties off.

Trent used to be friends with Austin and I. But then in eighth grade, Trent lost his virginity to Austin's middle school crush, Rachel Cross, who was very pretty (just because I was gay didn't mean I didn't think girls were attractive) and likable, but in no way did I like her as a significant other. Anyway, he got all cocky, egotistical and just a douchebag, and he just decided we were too much of losers for him. On another note, Tilly was such a bitch! Austin gave her everything, and she was throwing it in his face.

I took a quick photo and I decided I should go quickly before my best friend passed out. I put his inhaler on his mouth and set a timer for one minute on my phone. I sang,

"Just keep breathing, just keep breathing. Just keep breathing, breathing, breathing, breathing."

I was kind of referencing Dory from that scene in _Finding Nemo_ where she kept singing to Marlin to keep swimming. Man I loved that movie. Austin kept breathing. He was so cute when he breathed. My phone went off. I turned it off. I asked,

"How do you feel, buddy?"

"I can breathe again. Thanks, Dez."

"I'm your homo friend. You know I'm always here. Now,"

I took Austin's canister and handed it to him. He took a big sip of the water inside it. I couldn't tell him about Tilly two-timing him just yet. Hell, he'd just recovered from a very scary asthma attack. I sure as hell wasn't ready to watch him undergo another one.

He panted,

"Dez, what would I ever do without you?"

I laughed.

"I don't know. Be miserable?"

Austin snickered.

"Exactly."

We man-hugged. Austin was the first person I came out to when I first came out as gay in the seventh grade. Plus, he was the only straight guy I ever trusted. And the only straight guy who ever accepted me as a friend for who I was. How was I going to say,

"Austin, your girlfriend is a cheater."

It was like ripping off a band-aid. Unfortunately, I wasn't the type to rip them off because it stung like a bitch. I soaked it in warm water, instead.


	4. Chapter 4

**DEZ:**

Tilly and Trent nearly having carnal knowledge behind Austin's back was just flashing through my mind. I knew it would be backstabbing to lie to my best friend (and also the only straight boy I was ever friends with), but I also knew it would be savage to his soul. But I didn't think I'd be hurting his feelings that bad because he called Tilly a crotchety bitch behind her back and would complain about how mean she was to other people. I knew he'd find out one way or another, though. Even though she and I didn't exactly get along all the time, but in spite of that, we loved each other, I decided to ask for advice from my sister, Didi.

Her last boyfriend, Chuck McCoy, had cheated on her with this cheerleader at Marino named Kimmy.

I walked to her room.

I heard her laugh.

"I know. That bitch Tara Robinson told me (she mocked a voice that made her sound like a female version of Cartman from _South Park_ ) Where did you get that skirt, Didi? Sluts R Us? And I said, I'm not the one who has at least three boyfriends a year and has sex with them. Have fun having a baby at graduation, bitch!"

She started laughing and I knocked on the door.

"Gotta go, someone needs me. Love you. (she did a kiss sound effect) Bye."

I walked in. Didi was lounging on her bed, and she was wearing a pink Victoria's Secret tank top that revealed some of her coral bra and her c-cup cleavage, that said _On Wednesdays we wear pink_ in white letters and the word pink was the Victoria's Secret PINK logo, hot pink pajama pants with white polka dots and her orange, straight bob haircut tied in a high ponytail. I saw her yellow iPhone, covered with a yellow rubber case that said PINK in white uppercase letters, turn off.

She said,

"Dammit! My phone died."

I asked,

"Didi, can I talk to you?"

She sat up and plugged her phone in.

"Alright. Whatcha need?"

I said,

"You know how Austin is dating Tilly Thompson?"

"Hate that bitch. "

"Yeah, me too. She calls me a faggot, homo and fairy all the time. Anyway, today, Austin's asthma acted up again, and I was grabbing him some water and his inhaler. On my way back, I caught Tilly making out with Trent in the boy's locker room, and they were both half-dressed. He's going to be so crushed."

"Oh, that's tough. My best friend Emma felt the same way when she saw my ex-boyfriend Chuck cheating on me with Kimmy. But, you're going to have to tell him. You'd want him to tell you if he saw your boyfriend cheating on you."

I chuckled.

"That's true. Thanks, sis."

We hugged and I walked out her room. Didi and I didn't always get along. But we loved each other in spite of that.

 **ALLY:**

I was with my girls at my dad's house. We were all curled up in my living room, wearing pajamas, pigging out with pizza, caesar salad and cheesy garlic bread from Papa John's, sodas, popcorn (heated and bagged- with cheesy seasoning), brownies, pickles, pretzels, chips and dip, and watching _Bridesmaids_. We were also talking incessantly about the rumor mill and boys. We had finished doing each other's hair and nails, and we decided to tell each other secrets.

Trish had confided that if she drank soda in one minute or less, she could burp really loudly. Piper handed her a can of Dr. Pepper.

"Do it, do it, do it!"

Trish just chugged it down in forty-six seconds. She then let out a loud, drawn-out, belch.

"Ewwww! That's so gross, Trish! But I'm impressed."

I said.

Trish smiled with obvious pride in what she had done.

"Thank you. That shit kicks ass, bitches!"

She was only classy when she needed to be. But when she could, she cursed like a sailor and belched like one, too. I said,

"Guess what girls? I like a boy."

They all cooed,

"Ooh."

Piper squealed,

"Is he cute?"

I said,

"No shit! He has a cute, messy, edgy haircut, he's six..."

Carrie interrupted.

"He's six? What's he doing in high school?"

I said,

"I mean, he's six feet tall."

She said,

"Oh. If you had a crush on a six year old, you'd be a pedophile."

I said,

"Yeah. Anyway, not only is he cute, he's so sweet, too."

Piper took a bite of a brownie and chewed and swallowed it.

"What's his name?"

"Austin Moon."

Trish gasped.

"But Ally, he's Tilly's boyfriend. She would murder you if she found out you were checking him out!"

"Wait, Trish, how do you know he's her boyfriend? You like Tilly even less than I do."

Trish said,

"A couple times when we've come to Coolidge, I've seen them make out. My gut instinct is telling me that Tilly is sexually active. I friggin' hate that bitch. Remember that time in eighth grade when she told you you were fat before the school fashion show?"

I said,

"Yeah, and she insulted me and then she insulted you, saying Don't you have a work employer's penis to suck on?"

Trish said,

"Yeah, and then I flipped her off. She deserved it for calling my gorgeous best friend fat, and for saying that I get jobs by promising the bosses oral sex. The one way ticket to STDs."

Carrie laughed.

"Maybe one day she'll get pregnant. That would be the best teen mom episode I've ever seen!"

I asked,

"Hell, do people even watch Teen Mom anymore?"

Trish pouted.

"I loved Teen Mom. Remember how devastated I was when it ended?"

I scoffed.

"How could I possibly forget? You basically love reality shows with ghetto people, promiscuous adolescent girls and raunchy adult cartoons."

She said,

"Yeah, it's not something I'm proud of. Oh wait, I'm totally kidding. I'm totally proud of it. 'Cause I'm a ratchet latina and I love my ratchet shit."

Piper said,

"Yeah, Trish. You're as ratchet as they come."

Trish grinned.

"Thank you, Piper."

Trish's instagram username was TheRatchetLatina, some of her pictures had her doing the finger, and most of her photo captions had swearing. She was the most ratchet person I knew and she was proud of it. Her iPod consisted of Mike Will Made It, Rihanna, Nicki Minaj, Jennifer Lopez- I could go on. On another note, my dad said that Marino would be going to Coolidge for practice again. I was excited because I might run into Austin, but even though I didn't like Tilly didn't mean I wanted to steal him from her. I wouldn't move in on another girl's boyfriend. That's what a slut would do.

And I, Allison Catalina Marie Dawson, was no slut. I just flirted with boys by being nice and being myself. Because you know, kindness was like a magnet. It drew people toward you. Maybe there would be an instance where Austin would see Tilly's true colors and break up with her.


	5. Chapter 5

**AUSTIN:**

Dez approached me at my locker as I was about to take my inhaler.

"Buddy, I need to talk to you."

I held up my index finger, signaling one second. I breathed deeply five times into my inhaler and when I was done, I took a sip of water.

"OK, Dez, now you have my undivided attention. What do you want to tell me?"

"It's about your girlfriend."

"Tilly?"

"Yeah. I saw her cheating on you when I was coming back from your locker, getting your inhaler and your water when you had an asthma attack the other day."

"What?"

"Yeah."

He took his phone from his pocket. Sure enough, there was a photo of Tilly, wearing her bra and panties, in the boys' bathroom and she was kissing Trent, Dez's and my promiscuous, cocky, egotistical ex-friend who let his loss of virginity in eighth grade go to his head and then he turned into a jerk, and he was wearing only his boxers. I wasn't happy about it, but I wasn't that surprised.

"Why would she do that to me?"

Dez put his arm around me.

"I'm sorry, Austin."

I said,

"It's not your fault, Dez. Besides, I'm not that upset."

"But Austin, your girlfriend has been treating you like ass and she just stabbed you in the back."

I said,

"I know. That's why I'm breaking up with her, and then I can possibly make a move on Ally."

Dez smiled.

"It sure as hell hasn't taken you long to move on."

After school, I saw Ally, and I smiled at her. She looked even prettier now than the other day when we met.

She smiled,

"Hey, Austin."

I said,

"Hey, Ally."

Tilly appeared out of the blue. She glared at Ally.

"Stay away from my boyfriend, Ally, you skank ass bitch!"

I looked at her.

"Excuse me, Ally. I need to talk to Tilly."

I pulled her into the hall.

"Why? Why would you do it to me?"

Tilly smiled in a "Ms. Innocent" way.

"Do what?"

I said,

"Don't pretend you have no idea what the hell I'm talking about. Because you know what you've done to me, and I know, too."

"Tell me."

"Alright. I've done nothing but spend my freakin' time and money on you and you've tried to dictate who I hang out with, demanded one hundred percent of my attention, gotten mad how I can't always answer your stupid messages and calls, and all you care about is yourself. Not about other people. You're a selfish bitch."

Tilly looked shocked.

"I just want you to date someone cool. Like me."

I said,

"Well, to be perfectly honest with you, I don't think you're cool. You're shallow, cynical, judgemental and just plain heartless. You make fun of Dez for his sexuality and you call him a faggot and homo for christ sakes. Hell, he even showed me a photo of you practically having sex with Trent. We're done."

Tilly looked angry.

"Fine. Date that skanky whore you call Ally if you want to. But just know that she's a bitch."

I said,

"She's not the bitch. Ally seems like a better person than you'll ever be."

"I'll get revenge on you, Austin Moon, and trust me, it will hurt!"

"I'd like to see you try."

She just flounced away in anger, flipping me off while walking away. I just brushed it off and walked back in, feeling so great. I had just stepped out of a relationship that I had felt trapped in for so long. I could even get to know Ally better so that I could be with her. Ally was standing there, waiting patiently. I waved to her as I took my inhaler from my pocket and breathed into it.

She asked me,

"Austin, are you sick?"

I held up my finger to ask her for a second, inhaled and exhaled three more times, put my inhaler into the pocket of my hoodie, and said,

"No. I was born five weeks premature and I wasn't thriving until two months. I was diagnosed with asthma when I first started walking. I'm very allergic to kiwis, shellfish, dust, soy, gluten, tylenol and penicillin. If they're anywhere near me, or if I exercise too hard, my asthma acts up."

"That sucks."

"It gets worse. It hasn't been as common since I was like nine, but my asthma makes me struggle to breathe, and I have fits of coughing, hyperventilating and wheezing, I sweat like nobody's business, my chest feels tight and my lungs and trachea feel clogged, and a couple times I've felt dizzy and/or fainted. I was very prone to getting sick as a kid, and I have to take antihistamine pills every day when I eat breakfast and before I go to bed, and I have to breathe into my inhaler several times a day."

I took my inhaler out and started to breathe a few times into it.

"Awww, Austin, I'm so sorry."

I put my arm around her.

"Ally, it's OK. It's not your fault."

"Does it have to be my fault for me to feel bad for you because you've been struggling with a life-threatening sickness?"

I chuckled.

"No. I guess not. But you're lucky as hell you don't have asthma."

Ally smiled.

"That's true. I don't have asthma. But when I was eight, I had to have tonsillectomy. The only good part was the unlimited ice cream and popsicles."

I laughed.

"Yeah. I had to have it, too. The ice cream afterwards is always the best part."

Ally asked me,

"Oh, and Austin, I hope you don't mind me asking, but what did you talk to Tilly about earlier?"

I said,

"Oh. I broke up with her."

She said,

"I'm so sorry."

I said,

"Don't be. What I did was give her all my time and spend my money on her, and what she did was demand my attention twenty-four seven, not let me hang out with other girls, or with Dez, and acted like I committed homicide if I didn't answer her messages or her calls. Not to mention Dez caught her going all the way wearing only her bra and panties with my ex-friend Trent."

Ally laughed.

"How do you have sex with your clothes on?"

I said,

"I don't know. But in the picture Dez showed me of Tilly cheating on me, Trent was wearing only his boxer shorts and she was wearing only a strapless bra and panties."

"Well, Tilly's a bitch."

I scoffed.

"You have no idea."

She said,

"Actually, I do. I've known her since kindergarten and we went to the same elementary and middle school together. She's been trying to make my life hell ever since."

"How?"

"Well, it all started in kindergarten. We had an insect themed play and Mrs. Carmichael, our teacher, was accepting suggestions of songs to be in the play. I wrote a butterfly song, and she wrote a ladybug song. Admittedly, her ladybug song was kind of cute, but the lyrics made no sense because she mentioned that ladybugs ate pizza and rode bikes."

"What? That doesn't make sense!"

"Yeah, I know. Anyway, the class selected my song to be in the play and Tilly has had this vendetta against me for years."

I laughed.

"That is the shittiest reason to be mad at someone."

He took out his phone.

"What are you doing?"

"Erasing Tilly's number. Later I'm going to unfriend her and block her on Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat and Instagram. By the way, can I have your number?"


	6. Chapter 6

**ALLY:**

I was very pleasantly surprised when Austin asked me for my number. I took his phone, and he took mine, and we entered each other's numbers into them. After we gave each other our numbers, he asked me,

"Can I take your caller ID picture? I want to see your beautiful face every time you call me."

I laughed.

"OK."

He took my photo and I smiled, showing my teeth. He smiled.

"That picture is so beautiful. Because you're beautiful."

I laughed.

"Awww, Austin, that's so sweet! Can I take yours?"

"Sure."

He smiles and I take his photo.

"Handsome!"

We both unexpectedly locked each other into a very passionate kiss. My dad then yelled out to me,

"Ally! Time to go!"

I yelled back,

"OK, Dad."

I couldn't believe my newest crush and I just kissed. At home, my dad said to me,

"Ally, pack your things. You're going to mom's house for the next two weeks."

I said,

"OK."

I packed up my clothes and some other things I'd need to go to my mother's house. My dad dropped me off at her house and I pushed the doorbell. She opened the door and I hugged her. I packed up my things in my room and my mom asked me,

"Hey, sweetie! I was thinking about ordering for dinner. What would you like?"

I said,

"How about mexican?"

My mom said,

"OK."

Dinner was burritos with nachos and mexican fried rice, from Chipotle. One of my favorite mexican food places. My mom had a glass of white wine and I had a glass of pink lemonade.

I asked my mom,

"How does wine taste with mexican food?"

My mom held up her index finger for a second and sipped her glass of red wine.

"White wine tastes the best with fish and red wine tastes the best with red meat. But white wine also tastes great. As a matter of fact, Ally, why don't you try a sip?"

I took a sip of her red wine.

"Hmmm. It's a little dry."

"Yeah, wine is dry the first time you taste it."

"Well, I'll have to wait three and a half more years to drink wine again, Mom."

My mom did a teeth laugh.

"Sweetie, you're so funny."

I smiled.

"You're in a good mood. What good thing happened to you?"

I smiled.

"I'm in love."

My mom cooed,

"Ooh, sweetie! Who is he?"

I say lovingly,

"His name is Austin. He's very cute and he's very sweet."

My mom smiled.

"What did I tell you? You'd move on after Kevin Harvard and you broke up."

Kevin Harvard was my boyfriend three years ago who was a senior when I was a freshman. He was very cute, but not quite as cute as Austin. We dated for five weeks, and he was romantic and nice to me, but Trish caught him cheating on me with Sammi Conroy. Sammi was nice and she had a perky, upbeat attitude ninety-five percent of the time, and I hated saying mean things about people, but she was a total bimbo, and I felt sorry for her because most of the guys at school labeled her as a slut because she had double D-boobs and a lot of boyfriends. Not to mention, after we broke up, he started stalking me, he would call me a bitch, whore and slut, every name in the book to my face and over the phone and on the internet, and worst of all, two weeks after we broke up, he kidnapped me, assaulted me and raped me.

He was in a lot of gangs and he drank and did heroin and cocaine. He was in jail now- not just for kidnapping, violence and rape, but for a lot of DUIs, armed robbery and drug possession. And thank god I had Trish, Carrie, Piper, their parents and my parents there for me.

"Please, mom, that guy was a predator. He does drugs, drinks and drives and he hurt me and tried to rape me."

My mom cooed,

"So, tell me about your new guy who you have puppy love for."

I say lovingly,

"His name is Austin. He's very cute and he's very sweet."

Anyway, after I was done with dinner, I went up to my room as my mom was curled up on the couch, drinking wine and watching _Seinfeld_ reruns. _Seinfeld_ was pretty damn funny, and my mom and I a lot of times would watch it together.

As I went to my bedroom, I went over to my charged phone and saw I was getting a FaceTime request from Austin. Of course I answered. We needed to talk about the kiss.

He said to me,

"Hey, Ally,"

and he inhaled and exhaled into his inhaler three times.

I said,

"Hey, Austin."

"So, today we kissed."

"Yeah."

"It was good."

"It was magical, too. And you, Ally, are really pretty and one of the nicest people I've ever met."

I blushed.

"Awww, you're so sweet, Austin. You're pretty cute, yourself."

This time Austin blushed.

"Awww, you! Breaking up with Tilly was the best thing I ever did for myself in a long time. She was high-maintenance, mean, shallow and cynical. Hell, I don't even want to be just friends with that selfish attention whore."

"As if she ever deserves any."

He laughed.

"Hey, Ally, are you free tomorrow?"

"Um, yeah."

"I was wondering, do you want to maybe, you know, hang out? My treat."

"Yeah, that sounds really fun. Do you want me to dress up?"

He smiled his cute little smile.

"Are you kidding? You could wear pajamas for all the rats' asses I give!"

I laughed.

"Well, I'll certainly dress up more than pajamas! So, what were you thinking about doing for this hookup?"

"Well, I thought we could go to Wendy's, grab something to eat, and then hang out at my house."

"That sounds like fun."

"I mean, my parents are in rehab for the next two weeks, my uncle's taking care of me, what he does for a living is he owns a closet company, and he's a volunteer teacher at my school. And his shifts at his closet company vary a lot. His shift tomorrow doesn't get off until seven at night."

I said,

"Austin, I'm so sorry."

He said,

"It's OK. They need it. They're both alcoholic and they've had two DUIs this year, and their alcoholism was affecting their work performance."

"What do your parents do for a living?"

Austin smiled.

"They own a mattress store. What about yours?"

"My dad is the glee club sponsor at my school, and he owns a music store in the mall."

"My uncle is the sponsor of _my_ school's glee club!"

"That's so funny! Anyway, what does your mom do?"

I say,

"Well, my mother is a wildlife biologist and a wildlife biology professor at Florida International University. My parents split up eight and a half years ago."

"Oh, I'm so sorry. That hurts."

"You know what? It did for the first few weeks, but it happened almost a decade ago, so I'm used to it. Besides, they get along better in different houses, and they're good friends. On another note, what time do you want me to be there?"

"Does twelve work for you?"

"Yeah. Twelve works for me."

"Where do you live?"

He took out a post-it and a pen.

"One five two three zero Southwest one hundred and seventy third avenue, three three one eight seven."

"See you tomorrow at twelve!"

"Yeah. Oh, and Ally, don't bring any money. I want to treat you."

I smiled and scoffed.

"Austin! You just keep getting nicer and nicer!"

He blushed.

"Awww, I like you!"

After that, we hung up. I started a group video chat on Skype with Trish, Carrie and Piper.

Piper smiled.

"Ooh, somebody's all happy!"

I said,

"That's right, Piper. I am. And guess why?"

Trish snickered and took a sip of her drink.

"That boy Austin asked you out, didn't he?"

She then mocked kissy noises.

I smiled.

"Oh, Trish, stop it! But yes, Austin did ask me out."

Trish looked confused.

"I thought he was dating that mean old attention whore Tilly Thompson."

I said,

"They broke up. Tilly cheated on him and plus she was a bitch to him."

Trish rolled her eyes.

"Why the hell am I not surprised? And Carrie."

She made an up gesture with her index finger. Carrie stood up.

"You don't have to stand up. I meant, you might want to fix your shirt. I can see your bra."

Carrie looked embarrassed.

"Sorry."

Carrie pulled her tank top over her C-cup cleavage.

"Though I'm kind of being a hypocrite because almost all the time, I wear tops and dresses that are low cut and all of my bras are push-up bras. I like showin' off my watermelons."

"We get it, Trish. We're your friends, not drug addicted thugs in a slum."


	7. Chapter 7

**ALLY:**

Carrie smiled.

"So, what are you two little kittens going to do on your little date?"

I smiled.

"We're going to go to Wendy's and watch netflix at his house."

Carrie jumped up and did a move like London Tipton from _The Suite Life_ (without her yay me trademark).

"Ooh. You guys are going to have so much fun."

Trish piped in.

"Ally, you might want to bring condoms."

"Trish! We just asked me out and he wants to hang out with me! We're probably not even going to go that far."

She put her hands up in a sorry gesture.

"I'm just saying, maybe he could be fooling you into drinking or getting high with him and then when you wake up in his bed, you'll see all your clothes on the floor and there's a good chance you won't find a condom in your vagina. I know because it happened to me last year after I went to a bar with Josh Kirkland."

Piper looked like she was about to be sick.

"Trish! That's so nasty!"

Trish said snarkily,

"Well, after that I was grounded for two weeks. Does that make you feel better?"

I laugh sarcastically.

"Yeah, Austin totally seems like the kind of person who would be doing illegal substances. He has asthma and life-threatening allergies. If he did marijuana, cocaine, heroin or any other kind of drug, or if he OD'd on booze, he would probably die."

Carrie sighed.

"Poor baby."

"Yeah. He says he thinks that it was because he was born five weeks early and wasn't thriving until two months and when he first started walking, he was diagnosed."

Piper smiled nervously.

"OK, let's euthanize this conversation about fatal illnesses."

I said,

"Good idea."

After I hung up with my girls on Skype, I told my mom, who was still on the couch under a blanket, with a glass of wine, this time she was watching _The Girl with the dragon tattoo._ I had to read it over the summer as required summer reading. It was actually a good book. Everyone knows that most of the time, the book is better than the movie, unless it was _Fifty shades of Grey_.

I mean, I loved to read, but _Fifty shades of Grey_ was the worst book I'd ever read. Hands down. It was porn that you read. I saw it with Trish, Piper and Carrie just so we could see how horrible it was because we had heard all the awful things people were saying about it. It was terrible, not just because it was unoriginal, but because there was so much naked body parts and sex, it was scarier than any horror movie I had ever seen.

I had nothing against Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan themselves. They were very talented. But Dornan's character Christian Grey was a womanizing douchebag. If I could describe him, it would most certainly be more aggressive and very intimidating versions of Joey Tribbiani on _Friends_ or Barney Stinson on _How I met your mother_ or Mr. Big who was friends with benefits and an on/off boyfriend to Carrie Bradshaw on _Sex and the city._ And I don't know why Anastasia was so passive- if a guy sexually assaults you so much that you start crying, just stay the hell away from him or get a restraining order.

She paused the film.

"What is it, honey?"

"Austin… just asked me out!"

"That's so great, honey! What are you guys going to do on your date?"

I decide to kid with her a little bit.

"We're going to rob a bank and do graffiti on the Saint Jude catholic church."

"Honey, don't do that. That'll get you in jail."

I laughed.

"Mom, I'm just joking! Graffiti and stealing are for idiots."

My mother sighed in relief.

"No shit, Ally. You scared the hell out of me there! What are you two really going to do on your date?"

I smiled.

"We're going to Wendy's and we're going to watch netflix."

My mom said,

"That sounds like fun."

I say.

"I know. I'm not expecting some fancy thousand dollar dinner. I'm expecting sweet, getting-to-know-you time."

"Sweetie, I really like how you know what you want."

"Well, I impress boys by just being myself. Not by acting like a slut or a rich girl."

I walked to bed because it was ten thirty and I felt tired. I got undressed into my pajamas and tied my hair into a ponytail and smiled in spite of my date tomorrow. In the morning, I got up and showered and decided to dress in a very nice, yet low key outfit. I just threw on a white cardigan sweater, a navy spaghetti strap crop top with daisies and I layered a navy tank top underneath, medium wash skinny jeans, white ballet flats, gold bangles and a gold flower pendant, and I wore my hair loose and I was doing my makeup when I heard the doorbell buzz.

I could hear my mom say,

"Hi, you must be Austin. I'm Penny, Ally's mom."

I overheard Austin say,

"It's nice to meet you."

I called,

"I'll be right there, Austin!"

I rushed downstairs. Austin was at the door, dressed very adorably in a green hoodie, a white v-neck shirt, dark wash ripped jeans, white converse, a silver necklace, leather bracelets, and a silver chain bracelet, and his blonde, sexy, edgy-version-of-Justin- Bieber-combover haircut was all cute and messy, and he was carrying a bouquet of lilies. I figured they were for me, but I didn't want to sound too expectant, so I asked,

"Who are those for?"

He laughed.

"They're for you, silly girl!"

"Thank you, Austin."

I kissed his cheek and handed my mom the flowers.

"Hey, mom, can you go put these in a vase?"

"Sure, sweetie. Have fun on your date! And be home by six!"

"Thanks, I will."

As we pulled up by Wendy's, Austin pulled his brakes on his car and pulled his inhaler from the pocket of his white denim jacket.

"Hey, Ally. Hold this on my face, would you?"

He handed me his inhaler.

"OK. How many times do you have to breathe into it?"

"At least five. But I'm going to breathe into it ten times, just to be safe."

"Good call. You never know what could provoke your food allergies, which then provoke your asthma. And that would turn into a serious problem."

"Yeah."

I put his inhaler around his cute little lips.

"I'm going to count to ten. I'll let go when I get to ten."

His speech was kind of muffled over his asthma medicine. It made him sound a little like Kenny from _South Park_ , kind of funny. I held his inhaler on his mouth.

"One, two, three, four,"

I started.

"Five, six, seven, eight, nine. One more breath."

He breathed into it another time and I handed him a bottle of Dasani water in the cupholder.

"OK, now drink this."

I saw him drink that water in less than five minutes. Damn he was going to have to pee later.

"You were very well-behaved while taking your asthma medicine."

I said in the kind of way that you talk to a three-year-old.

He broke out into laughter.

"Don't make me regret paying for you."

He gave me a soft noogie.

I laughed.

"Hey, two can play at that game!"

I gave him a noogie on his forearm and we both giggling. A real date was starting. We had fun just teasing each other. I wondered when he was going to ask me to be his girlfriend. At Wendy's, we both ordered the Junior cheeseburger deluxe, a big thing of fries with salt and ketchup packets and Austin ordered a coke and ordered me a lemonade.


	8. Chapter 8

**AUSTIN:**

Ally put the to-go box on the coffee table.

"You get comfortable, sweetheart. I'm going to get us some plates."

She said,

"OK. Wait, did you just call me sweetheart?"

I said,

"Yeah. Because that's what you are."

She laughed her adorable teeth laugh.

"Well, if I'm a sweetheart, you are a gentleman."

I mocked a british accent.

"Why, thank you, m'lady."

I grabbed two plates, two napkins and two glasses from the kitchen and laid them on the placemats on the table. I put the burgers we'd ordered on the plates, poured our drinks into the cups and put the thing of fries, ketchup and salt packets in the middle. My phone was ringing. My ringtone was Ode To Quagmire from _Family Guy_ , but I answered to my phone before it could get to the part where he said,

"Let's have sex!"

I was the epitome of a Seth MacFarlane junkie. In fact, _Family Guy_ , _American Dad_ , _Cleveland Show_ , _Anderson Cooper, The Simpsons, South Park, Two and a half men, Modern Family_ , _How I met your mother_ , _Futurama_ , _The Office, King of Queens, Friends, Big Bang Theory_ , _Jersey Shore_ , _Beavis & Butthead_, _90210, Glee_ , _Tosh.0_ , _Adventure Time_ , _Seinfeld, Saturday Night Live_ , _Law & Order Special Victims Unit_, _Breaking Bad_ and _Keeping up with the Kardashians_ were all my favorite TV programs.

"Hey, Austin!"

Dez said. He seemed happy and upbeat, like he usually was. I said,

"Hey, Dez! Look who I have over!"

Ally gave Dez her beautiful smile.

"Hey, Dez."

"Hey, Ally. You look like a princess today."

I laugh.

"Doesn't she?"

She blushed.

"Thanks, you guys!"

I put my arm around her and she snuggled up on my shoulder. She was so freakin' cute when her baby-like cheeks turned pink.

"Awww! I hope one day you two snuggle bugs become a happy couple, get married, have a kickass honeymoon, have freakin' adorable kids, watch your kids grow up, grow old, die together and have each others' tombstones together."

Her and I smiled at each other. I gazed into her stunning brown eyes and I imagined her and I in a flower park, and I was getting down on one knee and proposing to her. In another part of my mind, she was in a wedding dress and a veil and I was in a tuxedo. In the next part, we were on top of the eiffel tower sitting at a table and drinking fancy red wine. In another part, we were in a hospital and Ally was holding a newborn baby girl, all wrapped up in her long, pretty arms.

In another part, our baby girl was in a cap and gown, and then I walking her down the aisle when she was wearing a wedding dress and Ally was crying and wiping her eyes with a hanky. In another part, we were old together and kissing. In the last part, our graves were next to each other in a cemetery. It was official. Ally was the girl I had been waiting for my whole freakin' life.

"Anyway, guess what? I got a guinea pig!"

Ally cooed,

"Awww! I love guinea pigs!"

"Hold on, let me go get him!"

He came back in about a minute, carrying a male, black, white and brown guinea pig. He was saying in a baby voice,

"Come say hi. Say hi."

I said,

"Awww, he's adorable as hell!"

Ally asks,

"What's his name?"

Dez smiles.

"Kenny Kardashian! One of the Kardashian brothers, chica!"

Ally looked kind of weirded out.

"Wow. The first boy in the Kardashian family. Let's just hope he's not like Kim, Kourtney or Khloe."

Dez smiled.

"He does. Don't you, Kenny K? Don't you?"

Kenny Kardashian just looked at us with his big eyes and twitched his adorable little nose. He was an adorable pet. Dez then had to go.

Ally looked at me.

"Is that some kind of homosexual code or something? I mean, not to be homophobic."

I laughed,

"Dez has a weird obsession with sexuality. He constantly draws penises, boobs, butts, vaginas, clitori, testicles and even open condoms."

"There's a kid in my statistics, chemistry and glee classes who does that and stores them in a _Peanuts_ lunchbox."

" _Peanuts_? As in the cartoon starring Charlie Brown, the kid who suffers from depression? Well, actually I don't blame him for having depression- most of the other kids on the _Peanuts_ treat like a doormat."

Ally laughed.

"Of course. I'm sure they totally make lunchboxes with the snack food Peanuts."

For some reason, I loved her sense of sarcasm. I laughed.

"Anyway, but that's not the only sexual thing Dez does. He stocks a bunch of porn on his DVR in his room and on his computer, I mean, it's not like his parents even care, but still, it's not appropriate, he has a subscription to Playboy magazine, and his bedroom has pictures of men in swim trunks or in their underwear. Not to mention he has this pastime he calls Dez Time."

I did airquotes with my fingers when I said Dez Time.

"Define Dez Time, if you will."

"It must be a thing for the gays, I'm totally not discriminating against gay people. Anyway, Dez Time is simply Dez wearing brightly colored, particularly pink, animal print or floral print tank tops or dress shirts, makeup, and he takes selfies and videos to Britney Spears songs."

"He's very interesting,"

she said.

"Yeah. I mean, don't get me wrong, I love Dez. He's like a brother to me. But I swear to god, anyone who's that obsessed with sexual stuff is OCD."

"Draws genitalia, stashes porn, and has pinups of shirtless guys on his bedroom walls? Sounds OCD to me."

"Anyway, let's eat!"

We snuggled up together and ate our cheeseburgers, thing of fries, ketchup and all. My ringtone went off again.

This time, I was getting a FaceTime from my dad in rehab.

"Hi, dad! I miss you!"

My dad said,

"Hey, son. Your mom and I miss you too! But we need help."

I said,

"Yes, you do. Too much alcohol is really dangerous."

My dad said,

"Yeah. That's why we're in rehab. Well, actually, that and we got some DUIs. On another note, who's the girl?"

Ally smiles.

"Hi, Mr. Moon. I'm Ally."

My dad said to me,

"Call me Mike. Anyway, Austin, you broke up with Tilly?"

I said,

"Yeah. Excuse my language, but she's a bitch."

Instead of telling me to watch my language, my dad said,

"Can't argue with that. I liked her at first, but then you told us about what she'd put you through. She was selfish, judgemental, heartless and an attention whore."

"Hell yeah! Not to mention Dez caught her kissing Trent when she was wearing her bra and underwear in the boy's bathroom."

My dad looked disgusted.

"Did they have condoms on?"

"How was I supposed to know?"

My dad mocked a southern dialect.

"Mimi! Mimi! Austin's got a new woman!"

My mom mocked a southern belle.

"Mike! Our son's got a new girlfriend? Happy day!"

My mom walked over and went back to her normal voice.

"You must be his new flame."

Ally said,

"Uh, hi, Mrs. Moon. I'm Ally."

My mom laughed.

"Call me Mimi, sweetheart."

"Alright, Mrs.- I mean, Mimi. What's rehab like?"

"It's a support group for people who are alcoholic or addicted to drugs. Most of the time, we can't use electronic devices, we have to listen to lectures and we get to speak. Mike and I were prosecuted a few weeks ago for a DUI, and we often went to parties or bars and came home drunk or with hangovers, and we didn't need that anymore."

I asked,

"But mom, you and dad said you would never be able to afford rehab because it was expensive as hell."

"Well, son, Aunt Lena, Aunt Rachel and I were brought up rich, because Nana is a gynecologist and your grandfather, even though he died when I was ten years old of bladder cancer-"

Ally interrupted.

"I'm so sorry, Mimi."

My mom smiled.

"It's alright, Ally. Anyway, my dad was a car entrepreneur and a car engineer, and when he passed away, he left my mother and my two sisters and I a bunch of money. There were times when I was a teenager, I liked to look through my father's things, it made me feel like he was still with me."

I said,

"So, mom, you're basically saying Nana sent you a ton of money to go to rehab?"

"That's right, son. I'm Nana's daughter, and she loves me. Just like she loves Aunt Lena, you, your cousins and Aunt Rachel."

"I love Nana, too."


	9. Chapter 9

**ALLY:**

Austin asked me,

"Hey, you want to go upstairs?"

I said,

"Um, OK."

He took me to his bedroom. He picked up an acoustic guitar, we both sat on his bed, and he started singing,

"I see the questions in your eyes

I know what's weighing on your mind

But you can be sure I know my part

'Cause I'll stand beside you through the years

You'll only cry those happy tears

And though I'll make mistakes

I'll never break your heart

I swear

By the moon and stars in the sky

I'll be there

I swear

Like the shadow that's by your side

I'll be there

For better or worse

Till death do us part

I'll love you with every beat of my heart

I swear."

I was smiling the whole time and my cheeks turned pink.

"My last boyfriend would have never done that for me."

Austin asked me,

"Who was your last boyfriend? And was he as bad as Tilly?"

"Well, his name was Kevin Harvard."

"Kevin Harvard! You know him?"

"Yeah. Obviously, he was my last boyfriend. How do you know him?"

"We went to Winston Park school together. He was the biggest, meanest, most obnoxious bully in my whole school. Him and his friends would steal my lunch money and sometimes my inhaler, call me names, make fun of me and even beat me up. It got him suspended a few times, but he never got expelled. Which I don't get at all."

"That's horrible, Austin! Anyway, he was just as bad or maybe even worse than Tilly. He was my boyfriend for five weeks, but then my friend Trish caught him cheating on me with another girl. After I broke up with him, he would stalk me, call me every name from slut to whore to even the ones I prefer not to repeat, via text message and to my face, kidnapped me, assaulted me and raped me. It happened two and a half years ago, and I'm still traumatized by it."

He looked very concerned and held out his arms, obviously asking for a hug. I very willingly complied and tightly hugged him.

"I thought he couldn't get any worse than being a bully. I guess I was wrong."

"You can say that again. He was expelled from my school and he ended up in jail for stalking, violence, rape, armed robbery, gangs, lots of DUIs, and possession of cocaine and heroin."

"Well, just know, I'd never, ever do what that son of a bitch did."

I smiled at him.

"That's why I love you."

"I love you, too. By the way I want to ask you something. Ally Dawson, will you be my girlfriend? You're the person I've been waiting for my whole life. And if you'll be my girlfriend, I promise, the only tears you'll cry because of me will be happy ones."

I felt tears of happiness well in my eyes and I covered my mouth to stop them from flowing down my cheeks. Finally, the new love of my life, had asked me to be his girlfriend.

"Yes, yes, yes!"

We started kissing and I stopped.

"Are you OK with us having, you know?"

I smiled,

"We could be going to hell together and that would still be OK with me."

I took his shirt off and he took both my tank tops off, revealing my pink bra. We still were kissing very passionately and I stopped.

"Do you have any condoms?"

"Yeah. My parents have them in their bathroom. My mom hasn't quite started menopause yet, and she and my dad still use them when having sex. Now let me go grab some."

Goddamn it, his abs were sexy as hell! He came back in thirty seconds with two condoms. We continued making out on his bed and I took his pants off and mine off, and we were passionately kissing.

In an hour, we were under his bedclothes. I wore the sheets like a strapless dress and he sat up, making his naked torso more visible. All my clothes were on the floor and so were his. Thank god I still had the condom. I had just lost my virginity to my boyfriend.

"I just lost my virginity,"

I said.

"I'm actually not a virgin. I had sex with Tilly a few times, and my freshman year girlfriend, Julia Wells, but she broke up with me because she was a lesbian, I had sex with her too."

"Actually technically, I'm not a virgin. Because of what happened with Kevin."

He laughed.

"Well, at least now you had consensual sex."

I said,

"Yeah. And plus it was so ironic that Tilly calls me a slut and a whore and she's had sex more than me."

"That's not irony. That's Tilly being a bitch."

"And I didn't know you used to date a lesbian."

Austin said,

"Yeah. I felt like Ross on _Friends_."

I was confused.

"Why would you feel like Ross? Oh yeah. He was married to Carol, and she divorced him after she realized she was a lesbian."

"We're still very good friends, though. Just because she broke up with me because she was gay doesn't mean I'm going to try to avoid her. That would just make me a homophobe. And I, Austin Moon, am no homophobe."

I said,

"No, you're not. Because if you were, one, I would want nothing to do with a homophobic person, and two you wouldn't be friends with Dez."

"Frankly, life without Dez and you would be hell, Ally."

"Austin, if I never met you, I would have never regained faith in my love life."

"Well, now we're together, and we're happy."

We kissed. I had a new boyfriend and I was very happy. Austin was nothing like my ex-boyfriend Kevin, who was a complete and utter jackass and a big, fat (not physically fat) douchebag. We put our clothes back on and I went to the bathroom and tied up the condoms. He grabbed his inhaler from his pocket and I held it on his face and counted to ten as he breathed into it.

Asthma seemed like a pain in the ass. After Austin was done breathing, we started to walk downstairs to watch some TV. As we were walking down, I noticed a picture of Austin on the wall. He looked about no older than two, and he was lying in a hospital bed covered under a light blue baby blanket with a large and a large black bear and he had an oxygen mask on his face.

"Awwww, that's so cute!"

He laughed,

"Thanks, babe. That's me when I was two. I was very prone to ear infections. I had to have ear tubes."

"That's horrible!"

"Try it with frequent and easily provoked asthma attacks that made me get sick a lot. That bear was given to me by my Nana. My baby blanket and Sergeant Bearington actually have gotten me through some pretty tough times."

"I know how that feels. I still have my blankie and a stuffed bunny that pulled me through depression, anxiety and a whole lot of other terrible things."

"We have so much in common!"

"We do! Get in my arms. I'll carry you down the stairs."

I got in Austin's arms and he carried me like a bride down the stairs.

"Whoa I feel like a princess."

He chuckled.

"Maybe that's because you _are_ one."

He gently plopped me on the couch and sat down beside me, snuggled me and grabbed the remote. Austin had one of those really cool TVs that supported netflix.

"How about _High School Musical 3_?"

"Since when are you into _High School Musical_?"

"Since forever! I always had a crush on Gabriella. She's pretty, but not exactly as pretty as you, Ally."

I blushed and giggled.

"Awww, you."

I gave him a kiss on his cheek. He kissed my temple and I curled up next to him.

"If you always had a crush on Gabriella, then I always had a crush on Troy."

"Fair enough."


	10. Chapter 10

**AUSTIN:**

I was snuggling with my baby girl during the "Right here, right now" number of the movie. She grabbed my arm and pulled it over her shoulder and I kissed the top of her head. Her hair, which was in perfect little waves, smelled like my favorite pancake syrup. Pancakes were always my favorite food, and my favorite syrup was obviously maple syrup. Because everyone likes maple syrup.

I whispered,

"That's just like us, baby."

I kissed the top of her head again.

"By the way, did I mention you have beautiful hair that smells like my favorite pancake syrup?"

She laughed her cute little giggle, exposing her beautiful, pearl white teeth.

"You big flirt! I use L'oreal and Pantene. By the way, did I mention that haircut makes you look so cute?"

"Thanks, babe. I always go to Steph at Sport Clips. Shoulder massages and hot towels come at no charge with reasonably priced haircuts."

"Well, she knows how to make you look sexy."

"Thanks, baby."

I kissed her cheek and snuggled her close. Ally was so kissable and cuddly that I rather selfishly wished I could spend every second of my life snuggling with her. I was loving this moment with my beautiful sweetheart- we were both snuggled up on the couch with a warm fur blanket, watching a movie. I didn't even recall the last nice thing Tilly had done for me. I mean, I spent all my money and time, or wasted it, on that selfish, mean, heartless attention whore, and if you think she was grateful for it, think again.

And to ice the cake, she was a total bitch to Ally, which I had no idea why anyone would want to be. Ally was good-natured, funny, nice, smart and pretty. As we were at the High School Musical number, I heard a door slam.

"Austin, I'm home,"

I heard my Uncle Scott say. He was taking care of me while my parents were in rehab for the next three weeks.

"Hey, Uncle Scott. What are you doing home early? I mean, not that it's not good to see you."

"My hours vary a lot, remember? Plus, my employees were both absent. Laurie went to see her sister who is at the hospital having twins and I sent Tim home because he was sick."

"Oh. Well, this is my new girlfriend, Ally."

"You broke up with your last girlfriend?"

"Yeah. You know my friend Dez?"

"Redhead, bizarre penchant for drawing inappropriate body parts, homo?"

"Yeah. Anyway, he caught her cheating on me with my ex-friend Trent. And plus, she was verbally abusive and too clingy, overbearing and demanding."

 **ALLY:**

Scott looked at me.

"Do I know her from somewhere?"

 **FLASHBACK**

"Lester Dawson!"

"Scott Moon!"

"How long has it been?"

"More than long enough. Life has been great without you."

"What are you doing nowadays, working as a male prostitute outside of a bar for gay people? Oh hey look at me, I'm Lester Dawson! I want to be your baby daddy!"

 **FLASHBACK ENDS**

Scott Moon was my new boyfriend's uncle. He was also my dad's worst enemy since High School. Shit. My dad would freaking kill me if he knew I was going out with a boy from Coolidge. Coolidge and Marino were deadly enemies.

Like Tom and Jerry from _Tom and Jerry_ , the Capulets and Montagues from _Romeo and Juliet_ , or G.G. Sparrow and Vi Rose from that kickass movie _Joyful Noise_ with Dolly Parton and Queen Latifah. Well, Scott, fortunately was being more polite to me than he was to my father that time I met him in The Cheesecake Factory. I discovered that it was five o'clock and that I should probably go home because my mom got worried if I stayed out later than six (of course, unless if I was sleeping over at Trish's, or Piper and Carrie's).

I said,

"It was great to meet you, Scott, and babe, I had fun with you today, but I have to go home now."

He said,

"Let me get your jacket and walk you out."

"I'd be happy to."

He grabbed my jacket, put it on me and walked me out.

"I had so much fun with you today."

"Me too."

We kissed. I called an Uber to go back home.

I said,

"Mom, I'm home!"

"Hi, sweetie!"

She hugged me and kissed the top of my head.

"How was your date with Austin?"

"We had a great time. We made it official. I'm Austin's girlfriend!"

"May you and him live happily ever after one day. I can't wait to be his mother-in-law."

I laughed.

"Well, Austin and I still probably want to go out for a few more years before we think about taking the plunge."

 **TRISH:**

OK, so tonight, my cousin Deb was going out to dinner and to see _Ted 2_ with her husband Emilio, and their friends, and they left me in charge of their daughter Makayla, who was three. Everything was going well. I fed Makayla her dinner, Mickey Mouse chicken nuggets with mixed carrots, corn, green beans and peas (I was actually surprised at how compliant she was when it came to eating vegetables. I've seen how most kids are with vegetables, and they'll manipulate, throw tantrums or bribe their way out of doing that), and I also had some, and I bathed her and just got her in her _Disney Princess_ pajamas and I was just sitting on the couch with her in the living room and she was all snuggled up on the couch with a Minnie Mouse doll and Olaf and Elsa dolls and with her _Sofia The First_ learning laptop toy (Emilio owned a ton of country clubs, so him and Deb were rich, and not surprisingly Makayla was spoiled by her family) and drinking her milk from her little Minnie Mouse sippy cup.

Most of the time when I babysat her, she made me watch _Dora The Explorer_ with her. I swore Makayla, in some way, was trying to conspire against me with that annoying shit, because _Dora The Explorer_ was simply a show that made me want to bash my head against a brick wall. I mean, come on, it was racist and offensive as hell because Dora was stereotypically mexican (I was mexican), she had clearly OD'd on some kind of illegal substance because she was always singing to a backpack and a map and she was possibly horny in a bestiality kind of way because all her friends were animals. I remembered that my best friend Ally had a date with her new crush Austin today, and I wanted to see how that went. In my opinion, she could do so much better than that douchebag Kevin Harvard, who cheated on her with a bimbo, and then when she broke up with him he threatened her to send him naked pictures of herself or he would rape her.

I decided to call Ally and ask about her date with Austin.

"Hello, ma sista!"

"Hey, Trish! What's up?"

"I'm just babysitting my cousin Deb's kid, Makayla. How was your date with Austin?"

"Well, it was a lot of fun."

I don't know why but that sounded really funny to me. Because everyone knows what fun is code for according to horny teenagers. I just started laughing.

"How do you define fun?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, there's fun, like good, clean fun, and then there's fun like sex!"

"Trish, you care about more about my sex life than I do."

Makayla unfortunately was sitting more than close enough to me and overheard me.

She giggled and asked me,

"Trish (she pronounced it "Triss"), what's sex?"

Shit. If Deb and Emilio found out I taught their toddler what sex was, my ass would get kicked. Hard. I also realized that it was Makayla's bedtime.

I said,

"Uh, Ally. I'll call you back."

I hung up.

Makayla asked me yet again,

"Trish, what's sex?"

She was only three. She couldn't know what sex was until she was ten at the youngest. So I decided to lie. I put my phone in my pocket, got down to her height, and I said,

"Sex is when Dora and her little monkey friend Boots have fun adventures together! Now come on, it's bedtime."

I picked her up as she was clutching her plush toys and put her on my hip. I brushed her teeth and tucked her into bed and she snuggled up with them.

"Makayla, do you want me to read to you?"

"OK."

She climbed up from her bed and pulled out two books- a book based on _Frozen_ , and a _Dora The Explorer_ book about visiting the doctor called _Say AHHH! Dora goes to the doctor_. After that, I kissed Makayla on her forehead and told her that I would be downstairs if she needed something. She yawned and her huge brown eyes closed. I went downstairs to go watch some TV. My favorite TV shows were _South Park_ , _Seinfeld, Anderson Cooper, Awkward, Friends, Two and a half men, Saturday Night Live, Supernatural, The Walking Dead, Gossip Girl, 90210, Modern Family_ , _Glee, Law & Order Criminal Intent, Sex and the City, Keeping up with the Kardashians,_ _Bad Girls' Club_ , _Jersey Shore_ , _The X Factor_ , _American Idol, Pretty Little Liars, Family Guy, The Housewives Series, How I met your mother, 16 & pregnant _and the _Teen Mom_ franchise.

Oh goody. _South Park_ was on. I was watching the episode with the Chickenlover. I was at the scene where the moron Officer Barbrady thought the bank was a drive-through restaurant when I got a call from Deb.

"Hi, Deb!"

"Hi, Trish. I just wanted to call to check in and say that I'm fifteen minutes away. How's everything?"

"Everything's fine. I put Makayla to bed and I'm just watching TV. How was _Ted 2_?"

"It was hilarious. Almost as good as the first one."

"It does look funny. But everybody knows that the sequel is never as good as the original."


	11. Chapter 11

**ALLY:**

I was in glee club sitting with my girls. I belted out,

"Made a wrong turn, once or twice.

Dug my way out, blood and fire.

Bad decisions, that's alright.

Welcome to my silly life."

Trish piped in.

"Mistreated, misplaced, misunderstood.

Miss no way, it's all good."

Piper sang along.

"Mistaken, always second guessing

Underestimated, look I'm still around."

Carrie sang in.

"You're so mean when you talk.

About yourself. You were wrong.

Change the voices in your head

Make them like you instead."

Everyone else sang along. God damn was glee club the most popular class at Marino High. My dad walked in.

"Well, good afternoon, my little songbirds."

Carrie laughed her adorable little laugh and smiled.

"Good afternoon, Mr. Dawson."

"Awww, Carrie! That little smile of yours never goes away, does it?"

She giggled.

"No, Mr. Dawson. Life's too short to be unhappy. So just look at the glass half-full, like I always do."

I could see B.B. roll her eyes and cough,

"Kissass."

"I can speak coughs, B.B. And I found that quite insulting. And I would appreciate it if you apologized to me."

"Do you even know what it's like to have a bad day, little miss sunshine?"

"I can't even recall the last bad day I had."

"Oh yeah. You're annoying, Nadine Flanders."

"Ms. Michaels!"

"Fine. I'll shut the hell up."

We started singing Brave, Don't wake me up, Like a virgin, Hold on, Beat it and Thriller. The next day, we went to Coolidge and after we practiced and we heard Coolidge practice, I felt hands that were as soft as a baby's ass cover my eyes.

"Guess who?"

I knew who it was! It was my baby boy, Austin.

I cooed,

"Austy!"

He kissed my temple.

"Hi, princess. You look as adorable as a button today."

He booped my nose. He locked me into a hug and a passionate kiss. Son of a bitch was he a badass kisser!

I smiled.

"My badass."

I kissed his cheek. My dad saw us and he didn't seem angry at me. Probably because he didn't know that Austin's uncle was his worst enemy.

"Ooh, Ally? You got a new flame?"

"Uh, yeah. Dad, this is my new boyfriend, Austin Moon."

They shook hands like the future father-in-law, future son-in-law. This was great. My dad already liked my boyfriend. In the stereotypical father-in-law, son-in-law relationship, the father-in-law hated his son-in-law.

"You're cute. And by the way, I'm not a gay pedophile."

I did a facepalm.

"Dad! No jokes about paedophilia!"

"Sorry, sweetie."

If it was one thing I hated, it was jokes about pedophiles. Pedophilia was not funny to me. Because when I was thirteen four years ago and in the eighth grade, I saw a fat hairy guy in like his fifties show himself to me.

I remember I was actually crying and my dad had to come and get me. It was really traumatizing for me. Plus, it was creepy, even more so than bestiality or necrophilia. Later, my dad asked me,

"Moon? Why does his name sound so familiar?"

 _Because he's the nephew of the person who you hate more than anything_ , I said in my thoughts. He then dropped me off at my mother's house.

"Hey, mom,"

I asked.

"What is it, Ally?"

"Can I talk to you?"

"By all means, sweetheart. About what?"

"You know my boyfriend, Austin?"

"Yeah."

"I feel like I'm lying to dad."

My mom looked confused.

"What would Austin have to do with lying to your father?"

"Well, Dad is the glee club sponsor at my school, and Austin's Uncle Scott is the glee club sponsor at his school, Coolidge High."

"Ally, I still don't see what your boyfriend has to do with lying to your father."

"Scott and Dad went to High School together, Mom. And they strongly loathe each other. I worry if Dad finds out, he'll kill me!"

"Well, honey, you have to do is what you think is right. Even if it means sacrificing something you want."

"You're right, mom. I love you."

I hugged her.

 **AUSTIN:**

I saw my Uncle Scott talking on his iPhone.

"He'll be so happy to hear that. OK, bye Mike."

Uncle Scott smiled warmly at me.

"Good news, son."

"What is it, Uncle Scott?"

"Your parents will be home from rehab next week!"

I said,

"Son of a bitch that is great news! All I've been wanting for these past few weeks is for them to be sober."

"Your dad asked me to help clear out the heavy alcohol they had so they wouldn't slip back into their old ways. Want to help?"

I said,

"OK."

Uncle Scott said,

"But wait, Austin, you have asthma, and you're sensitive to strong smells. How would you react to strong alcohol?"

I said,

"My inhaler helps reduce my attacks so they're not as strong. Which reminds me, I should probably take it now."

I was very unsure about that, though. Like I said before, my asthma was triggered by my food allergies, cleaning chemicals, allergens, cold air and when I was sick with coughs or colds. I pulled it from the back pocket of my jeans.

"Here, can you hold it on my face? I have to breathe into it at least five times, but I do ten."

I handed him my inhaler and he held it on my mouth and counted to ten as I inhaled and exhaled.

"Can you also get me a glass of water?"

"Sure."

He gave me a glass of water and I drank it down.

"Thanks."

Uncle Scott said,

"You know what? I'm worried that the liquor I'm about to pour out may provoke your asthma. Why don't I pour it out, put the bottles in this bag (he was pointing to a brown paper Safeway bag) and you can recycle it."

"Sounds good."

I turned on some music and he opened the bottles of tequila, champagne, vodka, whiskey, scotch, margaritas and peruvian and poured them down the sink and I recycled the bottles. We decided to have beer and wine instead because they were more mild. Plus, alcohol was OK in moderation, just like eating junk food. At last, my parents were sober. And thank Jesus Christ (I apologize for taking the lord's name in vain) they weren't doing drugs.

Because drugs were even worse than alcohol. Ecstasy, meth, marijuana, cocaine, heroin- you name it. I mean, kids at my school did drugs. I knew because sometimes I could smell weed in the halls. And it provoked my asthma.

My asthma was also provoked by very strong odors. Like the scent of perfume or cologne, cleaning chemicals, mold, aerosols, bugs in the house, smoke- I could go on. I was strong on the outside, but very vulnerable on the inside. But as long as I had my inhaler, my asthma would be at bay. I had gotten stronger as I had gotten older, and I was going to rise above it, not let it beat me down.


	12. Chapter 12

**AUSTIN:**

I could see my parents' car pull up in the driveway. That could only mean one thing- they were home from rehab! I mean, don't get me wrong, I loved my Uncle Scott, but my parents had been in rehab for three weeks and I missed them. They were the first people at the hospital there when my mom pushed me out of the womb. They walked in and said,

"Hi son!"

I hugged them both and my dad kissed my temple and my mom kissed my cheek. My Uncle Scott got a huge hug from his brother and sister-in-law, too.

"Thanks for watching him, Scott."

"No problem, brother. I love my nephew."

"Love you too, Uncle Scott. I'll see you at school on Monday."

"Yeah."

I hugged him. Scott left with his bags.

"So, what's rehab like?"

My dad said,

"Well, it's a support group for people who are addicted to drugs or alcoholic."

My mom piped in.

"And as you know, your father and I were very addicted to alcohol."

I said,

"I know that very well. You guys got two DUIs and your rehab was court-ordered. By the way before you guys came home, Uncle Scott and I poured all your hard alcohol down the sink and we spared the beer and wine. So you wouldn't slip back into your addiction."

My mom said,

"But Austin! Hard alcohol has a very distinct smell, and it can provoke your asthma. I hope you took your inhaler before you did that."

"Of course. And actually, Uncle Scott poured the alcohol down the sink and had me recycle the bottles. Because lots of things can make me have asthma flare-ups. Oh, and that reminds me…"

I pulled my inhaler out and my mom held it to my face and counted to ten.

"Hey, Mike, can you get him a glass of water?"

My dad gave me a glass of water. My mom took my inhaler off my face and I drank the water.

"Thanks, Dad,"

I said.

My mom smiled.

"Son, why don't you tell us about your new sugar mama?"

I said,

"You mean Ally Dawson? And just call her my girlfriend. Sugar mama makes you sound like you're in some ghetto slum movie."

"Whatever you want to call her, son. So, tell us about her."

"She's the girl I've been waiting for my whole life."

My dad asked,

"What number girlfriend is she again?"

I said,

"Girlfriend number three."

My mom said,

"And girlfriend number two was Tilly, who you dumped because she was a mean, crotchety little bitch, and who was number one again?"

I said,

"Julia Wells. She broke up with me because she was a lesbian. But we're just friends now. Anyway, Ally is who I've been looking for my entire life. She's as gorgeous inside as she is on the outside. She also loves music and glee club as much as I do. Actually, where we met was practice for glee club."

My dad asked,

"How'd you meet her?"

I said,

"I was texting Dez and I dropped my phone. I was originally going to get it but her hand was on it and we stared into each other's eyes. Her eyes were beautiful, her smile was so beautiful and her teeth were porcelain and perfect, and she had the most adorable laugh I had ever heard. I think I might marry her and we'll have kids."

My mom mocked a southern belle.

"Mike, honey! Our son may be asking his love for her hand in marriage!"

My dad mimicked a southern dialect.

"Mimi, sweetheart! We should start a-preparin' the weddin'!"

My parents, besides owning a mattress store, also had quite a passion for improv acting. They were weird sometimes. Not just when they were drunk, but also when they were sober. But they were serious when it counted. And I loved them, no matter how bizarre they were.

"Guess who her last boyfriend was?"

My dad asked,

"Who?"

I said,

"Kevin Harvard."

My mom asked,

"Wasn't Kevin Harvard that boy who bullied you all the time in elementary school and middle school?"

I sighed.

"Yup. That asshole made my life a living hell. I hate him even more after I learned what he did to Ally."

My dad looked concerned.

"What did he do to her?"

"Well, they were boyfriend and girlfriend for a month. But Ally's friend caught him cheating on her with another girl and she broke up with him. After that, he was cyberstalking her, calling her a slut, whore and a bunch of other horrible names over text messaging, on the internet and to her face, and he kidnapped, assaulted her and raped her."

My dad said,

"That guy is such a douche bag!"

I smiled deviously.

"Fortunately, he got his just desserts. He was kicked out of Marino and he was arrested for sextortion, threatening and plus, Ally told me that he drank and drove and did heroin and cocaine."

"Ally certainly deserves better than that son of a bitch. She found you and we can't wait to be her in-laws someday."

"I think I want to ask her to the annual school formal that Coolidge and Marino have."

My mom pinched my cheeks.

"Go get her, tiger."

She was pretending to retract claws and uttered a meow with a rolled-out R. I thought of a way to ask my girlfriend to be my date for the formal. I used some poster board and printed out a huge red rose from the internet and glued it on and wrote- _Will you go to the formal with me?_ in big black sharpie letters. She was going to love it. Plus, my Uncle Scott had signed up to volunteer, like he always did.

The school dances were always fun. This year it was going to be hosted at the Mandarin Oriental hotel. It was a fancy ass hotel that cost a fortune. Super romantic. My baby girl and I were going to dance together at an expensive hotel. I couldn't wait.


	13. Chapter 13

**ALLY:**

On thursday night, I was finishing up homework at my desk. I got a text from Austin. It said,

"Come out to your balcony outside of your room. I have surprise for you."

I walked out to the balcony. Austin was holding a guitar and he started singing,

"When I see your face,

there's not a thing that I would change.

'Cause you're amazing.

Just the way you are."

He held out a poster board sign, got down on one knee, and asked me,

"Will you go to the school formal with me?"

I smiled.

"The way of asking me is cute. And absolutely."

"Amazing! I'm sorry I asked you so late."

"It's OK, babe."

I kissed his cheek. It then turned into a very passionate kiss and he threw his shirt off, revealing his sexy abs. I could hear my cranky eighty-year-old next door neighbor, Ms. Baxter-Powell, scream,

"Hey, blondeass! If you're going to kiss her, do it with a shirt on! And get a haircut while you're at it!"

Panting, I yelled down,

"Ms. Baxter-Powell! Don't be rude, OK!"

"Don't tell me what to do, horny little tart!"

He whispered and panted,

"Just ignore her."

We continued kissing and I heard his phone chime. He said,

"I better get home. Thanks for agreeing to go to this dance with me."

"You're my boyfriend. Why the hell wouldn't I go with you?"

He threw his shirt back on and climbed down the ladder. He was cute when he was shirtless. The night of the formal, I picked out a yellow strapless dress, paired it with some gold high heeled sandals and I put on a long gold necklace and put on my makeup and straightened my hair and did it into a high ponytail.

My dad drove me down to the Marin Oriental hotel. By the time I got there, I noticed Austin talking with a girl with long red hair that looked a lot like Ariel from _The Little Mermaid_ and she was wearing a rainbow dress. I walked over to him and asked him,

"Austin, who's that?"

She turned around, only it wasn't a she.

"Hello, little straight girl."

"Dez?"

"You guessed it, Ally! By the way, you look darling this evening."

"Thank you."

Austin smiled at me.

"Yes you do, baby girl. You look like that princess from that Disney movie!"

I smiled and giggled a little bit.

"You mean Belle from _Beauty and the beast_?"

He chuckled.

"Yup, that's what I meant. Now come here."

He kissed my temple and I kissed his cheek. Dez was smiling and saying,

"Aw, look at you guys! And just so we're clear, just because I'm gay doesn't mean I don't support straight couples."

I said,

"Uh, good to know? By the way, how's Kenny?"

"He's as cute as ever and he's learning tricks now."

We went to the line where they stamped your hand and we saw that Austin's uncle and my dad were there. Hopefully they wouldn't go near each other. But if they were, hopefully they wouldn't cause a scene. I felt the need to tell Austin that Scott and my dad hated each other. It was like ripping off a band-aid.

But I hated ripping off a band-aid. It stung like ass and hurt. He took me outside.

"I don't want another pretty face

I don't want just anyone to hold

I don't want my love to go to waste

I want you and your beautiful soul

I know that you are something special

To you I'd be always faithful

I want to be what you always needed

Then I hope you'll see the heart in me."

Nothing was more beautiful than being outside under a starry night with the person you loved. I just hoped Scott and my dad wouldn't embargo Austin and I from seeing each other. We started passionately kissing and we walked back inside.

 **AUSTIN:**

I was at the punch table getting Ally some passion fruit punch. It's so fancy. They had wine and champagne glasses rather than plastic red cups and little pineapple and maraschino cherry garnishes. Fancy schmancy. From behind me, I heard a

"Hello, Austin."

It startled me, yet I managed not to break the little champagne glass with Ally's punch. It was Tilly. She looked icily beautiful, in a tight blue one-shoulder dress and silver diamond earrings. She looked like a modern version Disney's _Cinderella_. It was really ironic that she looked like Cinderella, and she had a heart and soul like her stepmother, Lady Tremaine, or god forbid her annoying as hell stepsisters, Anastasia and Drizella.

I said,

"Hello, Tilly."

She icily said to me,

"You're going to regret breaking up with me and dating that skank ass hoe you call Ally."

I was getting really pissed off at her now.

"DO NOT talk about my girlfriend that way. Ally is a better person than you'll ever be and more faithful than you ever were."

"I'm not even dating Trent."

"Oh, really? Then what do you call making out with him, in the boys' bathroom, half-naked?"

"A hook-up."

"Exactly. Even though you and Trent weren't dating when I was still seeing you, a booty call still counts as cheating, Tilly. And what's worse, you were so overbearing to me and you're judgemental of the people I hung out with."

"Fine. Be that way, douche bag. I don't need you. But just so you know, my dad will beat your ass, asthma boy."

"I'm not scared of your dad. And asthma is not something you want to make fun of."

Tilly just flipped me off. Nothing she did was enough to break me. Or at least, nothing yet. I looked for Ally. She was very paitently waiting by the table.

I decided to have a little fun.

"Here's your punch, m'lady,"

I mocked in a british accent. She laughed. Her giggle was the most adorable and beautiful sound. Like a baby's laugh.

"Thank you, Austin."

"You're welcome."

I pulled my inhaler from the pocket of my blazer. Ally gladly put her glass down and held it on my face. She started singing,

"Just keep breathing, just keep breathing, just keep breathing, breathing, breathing."

She was singing it to the tune of Dory's swimming song from _Finding Nemo_. I was about six or seven when I first saw that movie. It was my favorite Pixar movie.


	14. Chapter 14

**TILLY:**

Austin Moon was a god damn son of a bitch! He was going to get it for dumping my ass. I didn't even know why he thought that Ally was so perfect. I always had seen her as a skank ass bitch. Good things were always happening to her and she was always stealing my moments to shine.

The song "Caught up in the moment" by Renald Francoeur and Megan Oliver came on. I watched in anger as Austin was slow-dancing with the bitch. They weren't just slow dancing, they were also caressing each other. Ally also wasn't even that pretty and right now she was dressed like Belle from _Beauty and the beast_ just threw up on her ugly ass. I did my middle finger at her.

But she was too busy throwing herself at him to notice. What an attention whore. And a bitch.

"Douche and Douchette,"

I muttered to myself.

Wait- I knew how to get my revenge on them! I was on the Coolidge glee club with Austin.

His uncle Scott was the glee club sponsor at Coolidge High and Ally's dad was the glee club sponsor at Marino High. Marino and Coolidge hated each other. I also knew Lester and Scott hated each other because Scott constantly prattled about how he hated Lester and liked kicking his ass. There was no way Austin and Ally would be allowed to see each other if they knew her dad and his uncle hated each other's guts! That would teach Ally to steal other peoples' boyfriends, and it would teach Austin to have terrible taste in girls.

But just in case that didn't work, I decided to make fake pictures of Austin cheating on Ally. He would get it then. I went over to Ally's dad.

"Hey, Mr. Dawson."

"Hiya, uh, Lilly?"

"Tilly. But that's OK. Anyway, you know your daughter has a new boyfriend, right?"

"Yes. Austin. I like him."

"Well, Austin is Scott's nephew."

Ally's dad seemed calm.

"She can date whoever she wants. I just want her to be- wait, did you say Scott?"

"Yes, I said Scott. As in Scott-"

"Moon. I know him all too well. We went to high school together. He was the most obnoxious, classist douche bag I ever met! I don't want my precious little girl anywhere near him or anything that has to do with him, including his nephew!"

I smiled. One way down, one to go. I walked to Scott.

"Hey, Scott".

"Hey, Tilly."

"Did you know that your nephew has a new girlfriend?"

Scott said,

"Yeah. Her name's Ally. She's pretty, isn't she?"

I didn't want Scott to know that I hated Ally and thought she was a skank ass bitch.

"I guess she's kind of cute."

Scott looked at me and said,

"I can smell jealousy, Tilly. I know you're angry that Austin broke up with you and found a girl that you may not be typically be fond of, but at least you're not lashing out at her."

I said,

"I guess that's true."

 **ALLY:**

The next day, I was at my dad's house. I woke up and showered and got dressed. I went to the kitchen. My father was drinking his coffee. He said to me,

"Sit down."

I asked,

"What's going on?"

My dad asked,

"What the hell have you been doing these past few weeks?"

I asked,

"What do you mean?"

He said in a way like he was calling me stupid,

"Hanging out with Austin?"

I said,

"Dad, I thought you liked him!"

"Yeah, Until I learned he's the nephew of my worst enemy! Ally, I don't want you to have anything to do with him."

"But he hasn't been putting pressure on me to snort, smoke or shoot drugs or drink and the wildest thing we've ever done together is have sex!"

"Now you two are having sex?! What the hell has come over you?!"

"We used condoms, Dad."

"I don't care if you guys had sex with your clothes on. I don't want you to see him anymore."

"But…"

"If I catch you with him again, you're grounded indefinitely and disqualified from glee club. Is that understood?"

"But glee club is my life and dream!"

"Perhaps you should have thought of that before you started dating someone who is related to my worst enemy!"

I sighed and went to my bedroom. My dad was being a selfish ass right now. He didn't have to like Scott. And I didn't like the way Scott had treated my dad when I first met him. But I felt like he cared more about his feud with Scott than my feelings.

I loved Austin. And love was the strongest thing in nature. Hopefully my dad would realize that he should think about my feelings instead of his rivalry and he sure as hell couldn't disqualify me from my dream. I just never thought he could be this wrapped up in himself.

Austin was the boy who I had been looking for my whole life. He was sweet, funny and everything a perfect boyfriend was made of.


	15. Chapter 15

**AUSTIN:**

I was in sixth period glee club. Glee club was my favorite class of the day. After we had subsided singing Unconditionally by Katy Perry, Uncle Scott announced,

"Class dismissed."

I finished taking my inhaler, picked up my backpack and started toward the exit of the gym. My uncle asked me,

"Austin, can you stay behind?"

I was confused. I had never done anything wrong in school that was that bad, other than texting in class at least four times, and accidentally saying shit in class when I forgot to do my homework on only one occasion (well, I mean I said the S word once, I had forgotten to do my homework at least four times). But one time in sophomore year, I did get suspended for something that wasn't even my fault. What happened was Trent, who used to be Dez's and my friend but after he lost his virginity in the eighth grade he turned into a total ass and he also constantly bragged about his promiscuity, brought marijuana to school and was smoking it with his friends. My PE teacher Coach Simmons came in and could smell the pot, Trent told him that I was smoking it, and he planted the marijuana in my gym locker.

Well, I only got suspended for five days and he got off scot-free, but still, I hated Trent more than ever since the ninth grade. He lost his virginity to Rachel Cross, my middle school crush, and in high school, I don't know, I guess he just thought Dez and I weren't cool enough for him anymore, after he was no longer a virgin. Now he just hung out with a bunch of kids who drank, smoked weed and cigarettes (I hated cigarettes. Not just because they smelled awful and triggered my asthma attacks, but also because they just were a one way ticket to lung cancer) and he had sex with a lot of girls (I was surprised he wasn't someone's baby daddy yet) and I thought I recalled once seeing Trent shoot heroin.

I walked over.

"Am I in trouble?"

"More or less. You're still dating Ally Dawson, correct?"

"Yeah. She's flawless. She's all that's on my mind."

"Well, I don't think you should be seeing her anymore."

I was surprised. Me, not see my Ally anymore? Hell no. Not going to happen.

"Why not?"

"Her dad has always been my enemy since high school. He was so annoying and such a geek."

"So you won't let me see the love of my life just because you hate her dad?!"

"Don't put words in my mouth."

"You _are_ judgemental of her. And you _don't_ want me to see her because of your rivalry with her dad!"

I just was so mad at him. I thought he would accept me and not take anything from me. But now I knew I was horribly wrong. I loved Ally. And there was nothing in this universe to make me avoid her.

As I got home, I sent her a text message, saying,

"Hey babe," and did some frowny emojis.

She texted me back, asking,

"What's wrong baby?"

I texted back,

"My uncle tells me I can't see you. And I want to see you. You're an amazing young lady who I adore." I did the heart emojis and the kissy face one and the one with the heart in the eyes.

She texted me back, saying,

"Awww thank you Austin! And it's just as bad with my dad as it is with your uncle. He told me that if I keep seeing you, he'd ground me and disqualify me from the competition." and it had some sad face emojis after it.

That was terrible. Just horrible. Just because her dad and my uncle were enemies didn't mean Ally and I didn't deserve each other. We were in love. And everyone knows that when you tell someone they can't have who they're in love with, it only makes them love him or her more.

I texted back,

"Your dad and my uncle are both acting like ass and they should think about what's important. Their feud, or his nephew and his daughter's happiness. And I'm happy with you because unlike that bitch Tilly, you're nice, patient and you accept people for who they are."

She texted,

"And unlike that asshole Kevin, you have a sweet temperament, and you're faithful. And when we had sex, you were consensual."

I texted back,

"I would never hurt you, physically or emotionally. Because you're everything that I've ever wanted."

She texted back,

"And you want the whole me. You recognize that I want a relationship. More than just a booty call."

"Well, you definitely deserve more than a booty call."

"Thank you, baby."

I decided to send a video of myself singing to her. I pulled up my guitar and sat on my bed. I sang,

"I can't stop loving you

No I can't stop loving you

No I won't stop loving you

Why should I?"

That song was Can't stop loving you by Phil Collins. Phil Collins was one of my favorite old school musicians, besides Michael Jackson, Backstreet boys, Barenaked Ladies, Bruce Springsteen, Johnny Cash, Madonna, Elton John, Rolling Stones, Queen and The Beatles. Anyway, it totally bothered me that my uncle Scott was being a selfish, pompous douche bag. Well yeah, he wasn't always the most sensitive person I had ever met, but he had never been this selfish before. That's in fact why his ex-wife, my ex-aunt Tami, had divorced him three years ago. He did a lot of things that hurt Tami, plus he was having an affair with, coincidentally, my mom's cousin Christina.

I mean, I'm not saying I didn't like Uncle Scott. I loved him. I just wished he would think about other people instead of just himself about ninety percent of the time. I decided to talk to my dad about. Because every boy needs his father.

I saw my dad drinking a glass of beer in front of the TV. I asked,

"Dad, are you supposed to be drinking that? You just got sober."

My dad looked at me.

"Son, the rehab counselor said that my uses of alcohol were like how often you should junk food. She said I could drink in moderation."

I said,

"OK then. Anyway, can I talk to you?"

My dad muted the TV.

"Sure, son. Is everything OK?"

I said,

"Not everything. You know my new girlfriend, Ally?"

My dad said,

"The too good to be true one? Yeah. I like her."

I said,

"Yeah, her. I found out that her dad is Lester Dawson."

My dad asked,

"What's so bad about that?"

I said,

"Mr. Dawson and Uncle Scott are the heads of the Glee Clubs at Marino and Coolidge. Uncle Scott is the glee club teacher at Coolidge and Mr. Dawson is the teacher at Marino."

My dad looked confused.

"I'm still not seeing the problem."

"My point is, Lester and Uncle Scott went to High School together, and they both freakin' hate each other. They're even trying to keep us apart. Ally's dad even threatened to ground her and disqualify her from glee club if she keeps seeing me, and I'm sure Uncle Scott will disqualify me if I keep seeing her."

My dad said to me,

"Sit down, son."

I sat beside him on the couch.

"Austin, God didn't give you this earth wanting you to be confused or unhappy. You should always do what you think is right, and sometimes that means making a sacrifice."

"You're right, dad. Thanks."

I hugged him. My parents had lots of idiosyncrasies and they were just like the parents of Olive Penderghast from that awesome movie _Easy A_. Like the time when I was dating Julia and I lost my virginity to her and my parents asked me if we used protection, and I said yes. My mom had said,

"Well, your father and I wanted a beautiful granddaughter or a handsome grandson early, but on the bright side, you and Julia won't get any STDs."

But they were serious when they needed to be.


	16. Chapter 16

**ALLY:**

So this morning, I was scrolling through my newsfeed on Instagram. I came across a photo of Trish in her pajamas and she was doing the usual middle finger, as she did in a lot of her instagram and Facebook picture. The caption read:

"Morning ma bitches."

I came across something suspicious. It looked like Austin locking lips with another girl. I couldn't believe he had cheated on me. He seemed like the perfect guy. I sent him a text saying,

"Austin, we need to talk."

He texted back saying,

"What about?"

I texted back saying,

"I thought you loved me."

He texted saying,

"I do! What makes you think that I don't?"

I texted him saying,

"I was looking on Instagram and I discovered pictures of you kissing another girl. You're cheating on me, aren't you?"

He texted back,

"I'm not cheating on you I swear!"

I said,

"Don't lie to me, Austin. I saw those pictures and you were kissing another girl."

He texted me,

"If you want to break up with me, you need to say it."

I texted saying,

"If you're going to be unfaithful to me, we need to. Besides, your uncle and my dad hate each other's asses. I don't think we should do it right now."

He texted back,

"Works for me. You let me know when you want me again."

I couldn't believe I had just broken up with the best boyfriend I ever had. But I had to. He had cheated on me and posted pictures of it. It was like dating Kevin all over again. Except hopefully this time, he wouldn't assault, kidnap or rape me again. I just started crying off my face.

 **AUSTIN'S POV:**

I couldn't believe Ally had just broken up with me for something I didn't even do. I looked for the pictures on Instagram. Sure enough, there were pictures of me kissing another girl. But they were clearly fake. I needed to find who the culprit was and give them a little piece of my mind.

As much as I didn't like it how she had just accused me of cheating on her, I also felt terrible about those pictures. Who was that jealous of Ally and I as a couple, that he or she would go so far as to make fake pictures? Could it be Trent? No, Trent was happily in a relationship with Kira Starr as of yesterday. She was the only person I knew that he hung out with who didn't drink or smoke.

Or at least I thought it was a real relationship. Or maybe Kira was just another girl who Trent was hooking up with. On Monday at school, I finally discovered who had done it. It was Tilly. I came up to her.

"I hope you're satisfied, Tilly Thompson!"

She smiled at me in a deviously innocent way.

"Satisfied about what?"

"Don't play like you have no goddamn idea what I'm talking about. Those Instagram pictures you posted."

"Of you cheating on Ally? You're going to hell, Austin Moon!"

She smiled evilly. I hated this bitch more than ever right now.

"You made those pictures, OK? We both know it."

"Find yourself another girlfriend, douche bag."

I just had a terrible couple days. My girlfriend broke up with me and thought I was cheating on her. And my ex-girlfriend, who cheated on me by having sex with another guy and treated me like ass, was the douche ass bitch behind it all. I was so stressed and I was feeling dizzy, my heart was racing like a nascar car and I was suddenly having chest pains and going through a coughing, wheezing and hyperventilating fit. Dammit.

Not only was my bitchass asthma acting up, but I was having a panic attack, too.

I heard Coach Simmons ask,

"Austin, are you OK?"

I could barely breathe and talk, but I managed to choke out,

"Can't…. breathe."

I felt very dizzy and I fainted in his arms. I could hear him call 911,

"Hi, 911? This is David Simmons. One of my phys ed students just passed out. He went into a coughing fit, he's having trouble breathing and he just fainted. The address is Coolidge High School, 889 Maineville Road."

 **DEZ:**

I saw Austin on a gurney with an oxygen mask on him. I asked Coach Simmons,

"What the hell just happened?"

Coach Simmons told me,

"Austin just had an asthma attack and a panic attack, too. I don't know why he's panicking, though?"

"He told me his ex-girlfriend Tilly posted fake pictures on Instagram of him cheating on his new girlfriend, Ally. On another note, will he be alright?"

Coach Simmons said to me,

"He'll be fine."

After school, I sent Austin a text, saying,

"Hi."

He sent me a text back saying,

"Hey buddy."

I texted,

"You OK?"

He texted me back saying,

"Not really. 'Cause of what happened over the weekend with Ally and Tilly."

I said,

"I'm sorry, buddy. Why don't I text Ally and get her to come with me to visit you in the hospital?"

Austin texted me back saying,

"That sounds good."

I walked over to Marino to get Ally.

 **ALLY:**

After glee club, Piper put her hand on my shoulder.

"Ally, are you OK?"

I said,

"To be perfectly honest, not really."

Trish asked me,

"What's wrong? You can talk to your bitches."

I said,

"Over the weekend, Austin and I broke up."

Carrie asked me,

"What happened?"

I said,

"I saw these pictures on Instagram of him practically swallowing other girls. It's just I really loved him."

Trish said to me,

"Oh god. I hope this isn't Kevin Harvard all over again."

I said,

"Yeah, me too. And it's not just me breaking up with him that's bothering me. My dad warned me to break up with him or he'd ground me and disqualify me from the competition."

I got bear hugs from each of them. The bell rang and my dad called me over.

I asked,

"What did I do, Dad?"

He smiled.

"Ally, you didn't do anything. I did something. I owe you an apology, Ally. I'm sorry I threatened to keep you from your dream, and I'm sorry I was a selfish son of a bitch to you about you dating Austin."

"Austin and I broke up."

"Because of me? I hope not."

"No. Because we got in a spat over these pictures on Instagram of him cheating on me."

"I'm sorry, sweetie."

"Yeah, me too."

I suddenly saw Austin's friend Dez come over.

"Excuse me, can I talk to your daughter?"

"Who are you?"

Dez held out his hand.

"Oh, I'm terribly sorry, Mr. Dawson. Where the hell are my manners? I'm Dez, Austin's best friend."

"OK."

Dez pulled me aside

"Ally, are you OK?"

I said,

"Not really. I had a horrible past few days."

"I heard. It's been just as hard on Austin as it's been on you. Speaking of Austin, you shouldn't be upset with him. Those pictures weren't real, and that rotten attention whore Tilly Thompson posted them."

"What?"

"Yeah."

I said,

"Wonderful. I broke up with him for no reason. Dez, I need to talk to him. Where is he?"

Dez's voice held concern.

"He's in the hospital."

That just scared me to death.

"What? Why?"

"He had a panic attack and an asthma attack. I was just going to uber my way down to see him."

I asked,

"Can I come with you?"

Dez said,

"Yeah."


	17. Chapter 17

**ALLY:**

I asked Dez,

"What hospital is Austin at?"

He said,

"He's at Jackson Memorial hospital. I'll call us an uber down there."

Dez called an Uber. We went to the hospital receptionist. I asked the lady,

"Excuse us?"

She looked up from her computer and asked,

"Yes."

Dez said to me,

"Hi, we're here to see Austin Moon."

She typed something on her computer.

"Oh, OK. Austin Moon. He's in 334."

I said,

"Thanks."

We went in the elevator and went to 334. He was lying perfectly still, his eyes were closed, and the IV was beeping as he was sleeping. I whispered,

"Awww, look. He's sleeping."

He looked so cute when he was sleeping. His blonde hair was all messy and he was sleeping like a baby. I grabbed a fold-up chair and put it next to his bed and caressed his hair softly so that I wouldn't wake him up. He gently opened his adorable brown eyes and whispered hoarsely,

"Hi, guys."

Dez whispered,

"Hey, buddy."

He saw me and said,

"Please tell my roofies have worn off."

I whispered,

"Hi, Austin."

Austin said to me,

"Ally, I'm so happy you're here. I wanted to talk to you. Hey, Dez, can you call my parents and tell them I'm at the hospital."

Dez said,

"I'm going to go outside to do it. I get no bars in here."

I said,

"Austin, Dez told me what happened. And I'm sorry I thought you two-timed me."

He smiled.

"It's cool, Ally."

I said,

"No, it's not. What I did was horrible. I was such a bitch."

He said,

"Well, no matter how big of a bitch you think you are, I deeply and generally love you. And I always have. Ever since I met you."

I blushed.

"That makes me feel better. So, when do you get out from the hospital?"

He smiled.

"The doctors gave me a nuebalizer and told me I could go home tomorrow. Another trigger to my asthma is when I get stressed out. And to answer your question, the doctors told me to stay here overnight."

We kissed.

"Oh, my dad is letting me date you now."

Austin smiled.

"Do you still have feelings for me?"

I said,

"Of course. You were the boyfriend who didn't cheat on me or god forbid hurt me."

"I'd never do either of those things to you. I love you."

We started kissing passionately. After we stopped, I said,

"I'm so happy we're back together."

He smiled.

"Me too."

Dez walked in.

"Austin, your parents said they'd be here in- oh my damn! Is a certain couple back together?"

I smiled,

"Yeah."

Dez said,

"When I heard you little kittens broke up, I was freakin' devastated. I like you better than Tilly. Because you accept me for who I am. Unlike her. She called me a fairy, homo and a faggot all the time."

I said,

"I hate those words. They're even worse than the N word or the word retarded."

Dez said,

"Well, Tilly is ableist and homophobic, so those are words who she uses to describe the disabled and gays."

I asked,

"Should I be surprised?"

Dez told me,

"You really shouldn't."

 **AUSTIN:**

A few hours after Ally and Dez had gone home, my parents walked in.

My mom whispered,

"Hey, sweetie."

She kissed my forehead. My dad gave a kiss on my temple.

"You OK, son?"

I said,

"I am now. I was under a lot of stress and I had a panic attack and an asthma attack at the same time."

My dad looked alarmed.

"Why were you having a panic attack?"

I took a breath in.

"Ally and I had some drama because she thought I cheated on her. But it was Tilly who made out of context pictures of me brushing my lips against other girls. It stressed me out and it provoked my asthma and gave me a panic attack."

My mom asked,

"Did you take your inhaler?"

I said,

"Mom, I was about to grab it when I got dizzy and fainted and Coach Simmons called 911."

She looked concerned.

"Well, son, I think we should keep you home from school for tomorrow. Your asthma hasn't acted up this much since you were younger."

I was starting to feel sleepy. I yawned a little yawn.

"OK."

My mom smoothed my blanket. She whispered,

"This reminds me of when you were a baby and I would put you to sleep. Except now I didn't rock you in a rocking chair and feed you a bottle."

I yawned again. She whispered,

"I love you, baby."

She came over and gave me a big kiss on my forehead. My dad kissed my temple. They walked out of the hospital room and I closed my eyes and dozed off, feeling much better.


	18. Chapter 18

**AUSTIN:**

I was more than ready to move on from my traumatic experiences of last week. The glee club competition was this friday! Marino and Coolidge were singing their hearts out. I knew Coolidge was my school and I should care about it winning. But my high school won every year and Marino deserved to win just as much as Coolidge.

Just as long as no one cheated. I was tingling all week as we practiced at Coolidge, at Marino and our competition would be held at the Knight Concert Hall, where we would have the competition. For the boys' costume pieces, we had to wear a solid black or white shirt, pants or shoes, and the girls had to wear white or black dresses and shoes and have their hair pulled off the faces. Marino had the same policy. I just had to do something about the relationship between Ally's dad and Uncle Scott.

I'm going to be honest as hell here. That wasn't going to be easy. Uncle Scott and Lester were like Mr. Krabs and Plankton from _Spongebob Squarepants_ , Elmer Fudd and Bugs Bunny from _Looney Tunes_ , Jay and his enemy Earl Chambers on the fifth episode of the sixth season of _Modern Family_ , and well, I think you can comprehend the idea. But was I the type to give up? Yeah, think again. I took my tank top off, revealing my abs. So now I was shirtless. I sent it to Ally with a message saying,

"Hey babe",

with heart and love emojis.

She sent me a picture of herself smiling and wearing the perfect amount of lipstick, lipgloss and eyeshadow. Son of a bitch was that picture beautiful. The message said,

"Hi sweetie!"

I texted,

"You look like a princess."

She texted,

"Yeah well you look hot."

I texted,

"Thanks, Ally. I love you. How do you feel competition?"

She texted,

"Dude I'm nervous but also excited! How are you feeling?"

"Same as you, baby."

"And I don't care if I win. You're better than any kind of trophy or prize they could possibly be offering."

Ally sent me a picture of her with rosy cheeks. The message said,

"Awwww, Austin!"

I texted,

"I wish they'd make a tumblr gif of you blushing. It would be my favorite tumblr gif."

She sent me a text saying,

"Awww, stop!"

and added dying of laughter and kissy face emojis.

Emojis made text messages and social media posts so much more vibrant. Plus, they were adorable! Whoever invented them, I thanked them from the bottom of my heart. The night of glee club, my heart was pounding. I saw Ally and walked over to her.

 **ALLY:**

Austin walked over to me and we started kissing again, and before we had to go to our schools, he whispered,

"And I know I already said this, but I don't give a rat's ass if I win. I just want you."

I said,

"I want you, too."

We kissed again and B.B. yelled to me,

"BITCH! Less PDA, more getting into your group."

I said,

"OK, B.B."

 **LESTER:**

Even though I apologized to my daughter Ally, I didn't think I could forgive myself right now. I was a selfish douche bag who gave more of a rat's ass about this stupid feud with Scott then about her being happy with his nephew. But I still hated the way Scott treated me in high school. But I also wouldn't want this to be like _Romeo and Juliet_. As the guests were sitting down, I went over to Scott.

Scott said to me in a surprisingly cordial manner,

"Lester, is there something you want to tell me?"

I said,

"Yeah. You know that my precious daughter and your nephew are in love right?"

"Yeah. Your daughter is all my nephew has been thinking about."

"Well, we've been feuding and competing with each other so much that we've forgotten to think about their happiness. Clearly they care more about each other more than winning, and if they're happy, aren't we happy?"

I started crying a little bit. Scott smiled and giggled a little bit.

"Are you crying?"

"Yes. Because you were just so uplifting just now."

Scott smiled at me.

"And I'm sorry I acted like such a son of a bitch in high school. What do you say, are we friends now?"

I smiled and wiped my eyes.

"Come here, you big lug!"

Scott and I hugged for a whole five minutes.

I said,

"The show's about to start."

Scott's glee club sang Like a virgin, Katy Perry's Unconditionally, Sia's Breathe Me, Pharrell's Happy, Wiz Khalifa's See you again, Iyaz's Replay, Bruno Mars's When I was your man, Blake Shelton's God gave me you, David Archuleta's Just a little too not over you and Frozen's Let It Go. My own sang Miley Cyrus's Wrecking Ball, Jennifer Lopez's Booty, Kesha and Pitbull's Timber, Sia's Titanium, Robin Thicke's Blurred lines, PSY's Gangam Style, Britney Spears Till the world ends, Rascal Flatts What hurts the most, Katy Perry's Hot N Cold, Sir mix a lot's Baby got back, Nicki Minaj's Anaconda, Katy Perry's Roar, Sara Bareille's Brave, Sara Bareilles's Love Song and Lifehouse's You and Me. I saw my daughter give a speech.

"I love a Coolidge boy. He goes to Coolidge and I go to Marino. And I want to sing this song in his honor."

"Take a walk in the park

Holding hands in the dark

Steal a kiss beneath the stars

My heart beat fast as I looked at you

And I could tell yours was racing too

We fell at once, and never looked back

My love will never fail you

My arms will always save you

I will make you, I will make you mine

I swear to always fight for us, and

I swear no one can touch this love, oh

I will make you, I will make you mine

For always

We got caught in the rain

Just two kids at the end of May

Just trying to figure out what life could hold

See I don't believe in chance

I think it's the choice we make, oh

And I choose you for the rest of my days

My love will never fail you

My arms will always save you

I will make you, I will make you mine

I swear to always fight for us, and

I swear no one can touch this love, oh

I will make you, I will make you mine

For always

You are all I'd ever need

And you are more than I could hope you'd be

You are home to me."

 **AUSTIN:**

I can't even remember the last time I cried. I cried tears of happiness as my girlfriend sang the song she just did to me. I went up to her.

"I love you, Ally Dawson!"

She said to me,

"I love you, Austin Moon!"

The judge went up, holding a trophy.

"And the winner is- Marino High!"

I hugged my girlfriend and kissed her again. My Uncle Scott approached me.

"Austin, you did amazing!"

I said,

"Thanks, I couldn't have done it without you, Uncle Scott."

He smiled.

"You'll be happy to know that Ally's dad and I are friends now."

I hugged him.

"That's great to hear."

At the after party, I met up with my parents.

My dad hugged me.

"You kicked ass, son!"

My mom hugged me, too.

"And I'm sorry you didn't win, honey."

I cut her off.

"Mom, that's where you're wrong. I did win. I won the best girlfriend I ever had."

My dad asked,

"Well, why don't you get Ally, and we'll see if we can get some pictures of you and her."

I saw Ally having a slice of cake, and she was with three other girls. One was a chubby, short latina, and the other two were blonde. I covered her eyes.

"Guess who?"

She said,

"Is it Austin?"

I mocked a british accent.

"You've guessed correctly, m'lady."

I kissed her cheek.

"I'm proud of you girls. You kicked ass!"

The little mexican girl smiled at me.

"Awww, thank you! I'm Trish."

One of the blonde girls smiled at me.

"Awww, you're so sweet! I'm Carrie. Ally, can I give your boyfriend a hug?"

Ally smiled,

"Sure."

She hugged me and laughed a cute little laugh. Carrie hugged like a python. The other blonde girl smiled at me.

"Thanks. I'm Piper. Ally's told us lots of great things about you."

Ally and I graduated Marino and Coolidge with 4.0 GPAs and we got scholarships to Julliard, the most prestigious music school in New York. We followed our dreams of singing and became rich, earned recording contracts, and eventually got married. I guess you could say we lived, what do you call it? Oh yeah. Happily ever after.

 **The End**


End file.
